Saga - OT Saga - ST Accidents of Power (Star Trek crossover)

Interlude​

Princess Ruffel Daari, heir to the Kingdom of Duros, finally took a measure of relaxation. Official duties would catch up with her quickly enough, but for now, she and her companion could share the joys of celebration with the countless others on Duro and across the galaxy.

Blair Caruthers led her through the streets. “Where are we going?”

“Not far,” the Republic diplomat assured her. “Do you see it?”

Ruffel glanced where she was pointing. “That’s new,” she said.

“Not really. I thought you would.”

“I never heard of the place called the Captain’s Table,” she said.

“Because you hadn’t been a captain,” Caruthers replied. “Come on.”

They pushed the door open and blinked. The cantina was packed; Ruffel’s hand went to her blaster when she saw the First Order uniforms. “No,” Blair said. “You do not bring war here.”

“I don’t understand.”

“The Captain’s Table is not something you understand,” a Bith nearby explained. “It’s beyond time and space.”

“Thanks,” Ruffel said. “That clears it up.”

“On the plus side, your bodyguards can’t follow us in.”

“Because they aren’t captains?”

“Precisely.”

“And that means–?”

“We went here at war’s end to enjoy ourselves. Lots of people seem to have gotten the same idea.”

“But they lost.”

“Believe me, I’ve been where you are. I’ve met Imperial captains, Separatist captains from the Clone Wars, Cardassians from our galaxy… it is disconcerting at first.”

“But you weren’t a captain immediately after the war.”

“No. Romulan ale,” she ordered. “Something you ought to try.”

“They’re not going to attack–” Ruffel pointed at the door.

“They can’t. We entered from Duro. They didn’t.”

“Well, well, well,” a new voice echoed. “Another one. I must have done something right.”

Ruffel watched Caruthers turn in amazement to the speaker. “Captain sor Valetta?!”

“Cindy,” sor Valetta said. “We’re all captains here, as you well know. And who’s your friend?”

“Cindy,” Blair said carefully. “Cindy, Princess Ruffel Daari of Duro. Ruffel, Cindy sor Valetta, commander of the USS Vicksburg. The first ship I served on.”

“A princess? You must be a captain, too, or you wouldn’t be here.”

“As Blair once pointed out, I’m always a princess. I’ve made my peace with it.”

“Good for you.”

“You were on–” Blair started saying.

“My story has been told,” Cindy interrupted. “People will want to hear yours.”

“I don’t know…” Ruffel considered, and once again glanced at the First Order officers, and then at a couple of people in various uniforms also watching them. Resistance, Republic, Mandalorian… “It might look like I’m taking all the credit.”

“Oh, sithspit,” one of the First Order captains explained. “Princess–Captain–whatever you are–if you’re a coward, admit it and be quiet. Or just tell it. If you lie, there’ll be someone here who knows better. That’s what I like about this place.”

Several people in the hall erupted in applause. “I am no coward,” Ruffel declared. She glared at the First Order captain. “You want my story? In the Kingdom of Duro my father restored after the Galactic Empire fell, military service is compulsory. No exceptions. I was a lieutenant commanding an infantry company when, after you blew up Hosnian Prime, I was called in for a special assignment…”

 

Part III: Enterprise
1​

Lieutenant Ruffel Daari walked into the HQ office she shared with other company commanders in the battalion to find her commanding officer, Major Raak, and an unfamiliar human female in civilian dress. “Sir,” she acknowledged Raak.

“You have a visitor, Lieutenant Daari.”

“Hello, Princess,” the human said. “I’m Lieutenant Colonel Blair Caruthers, acting ambassador to the Kingdom of Duro from the New Republic.”

“Why the rank?” Daari asked. “And is there a New Republic anymore?” Everyone was still processing what happened at Hosnian Prime. Few doubted war with First Order would come, but how soon was a matter of debate.

“Evidence speaks against it,” Caruthers admitted. “I was military attache, but the ambassador and most of her deputies fled back to their homeworlds after the attack. I… am not in a position to do that, so I stayed.”

“What’s this about? I just command an infantry company.”

“Lying to yourself isn’t a good idea, Princess,” Caruthers said. “You command a company, but you’re not here because that’s what the Duros Royal Army needs.”

“I don’t understand.” Ruffel started to feel anger. She liked that everyone at least had to pretend she was no different than any other company commander in the Army.

“I’ve received a signal that requires acting upon, but it’s too risky to head there alone, there aren’t enough people at the embassy, and I can’t wait till the New Republic gets anything together to even reply to me, much less send anything. If they ever do. So I approached your father and convinced him–well, I convinced General Jade, who convinced him–that this may serve Duro’s interest as well. King Gelemod could have assigned anyone for the mission. He specifically asked me to speak with you.”

“Damn,” Ruffel said. “The whole point of me being here is to avoid special treatment.”

“The point of you being here,” Caruthers said, “is to gain perspective that will help you when you become Queen. This mission will certainly serve… if you survive. I won’t pretend the risk is small.”

“And my father has other children,” Ruffel said.

“You can refuse. How long that keeps you safe is anyone’s guess.”

“Not long, I wager. What’s the deal?”

Caruthers shook her head. “Not here. You will have all the details, you’ll know everything I know. That is a promise. You will also be free to abort the mission at any time and return here. However, I’d rather not have it be widely known where we’re going and why.”

Ruffel knew the decision was already made. “I’m in,” she said.

“Thank you, Princess,” Caruthers said. “Major Raak will have the paperwork. You can select up to fifteen troopers to join us, and there’ll be four New Republic military personnel besides myself. Report tomorrow to the corvette Challenger.” Caruthers rose. “I’ll see you then, Princess.”

XXX​

RDS Challenger was a typical example of the school of military procurement that the Kingdom of Duros rigorously practiced since Gelemod Daar rose high enough in the ranks of the merc fleet then pretentiously calling itself the First Galactic Army to have a say in policy. Survivability at the expense of everything else, simplicity in manufacture at the expense of everything except survivability. The Challenger would have less firepower than a similarly-sized New Republic or First Order ship, but it could operate with a smaller crew, would be able to absorb far more damage, and represented much less labor and resources in its production.

“Captain on deck!” Caruthers announced when Ruffel passed through the hatchway.

Pronouncements like that weren’t part of the Duros tradition. “At ease,” she said. Since there was little time to recruit anyone specially, she’d simply gone to her company, asked for volunteers, and had them draw lots to reduce the total number to fourteen. Then she called a friend from the Academy, and, for the first time in her service, took advantage of her royal status, getting Ensign Caami’s commander to release her for this. Soriw would be her engineering officer.

Caruthers had said she’d bring in four of her people, but Ruffel only saw two humans and a Twi'lek. “Are we missing someone?”

“Oh, Cotta is in the cockpit. He’s our second pilot.”

“Second–?”

Caruthers gestured at herself. “Pilots are the bottleneck for fleet readiness. King Gelemod was quite happy not to have to spare even one, much less two.”

“I have a little training, all officers do,” Ruffel said. “Cotta? That sounds like a–”

The Republic officer nodded. “He’s a Hutt.”

Ruffel was glad humans couldn’t see in the ultraviolet, since she felt the surprise register on her face pigmentation. “Seriously?”

“It’s your ship, captain. Come and see.”

They made their way through the ship, greeting the crew who were familiarizing themselves with their stations. In the cockpit, Ruffel indeed found a Hutt where the pilot would typically be. The chair intended for use by bipedal species had been detached from the floor and secured on the starboard side.

“Warrant officer Cotta, this is Ruffel Daari. She’s our captain.”

“Yes, ma'am,” the Hutt acknowledged as he turned around. He seemed smaller than Hutts that typically appeared on Galactic news, and Ruffel didn’t know if it meant he was an unusual individual, a member of a particular subspecies, or just young. He was reddish brown, getting darker, almost black, towards the tail. The tip of his tail was covered by an equivalent of a utility belt, with holstered tools and weapons. His eyes were behind a pair of large goggles in a metal frame, and from the blinking, she saw they weren’t simple glasses, but contained screens to display an overlay on reality.

“What’s that for?”

“All the instruments, all the instructions on the ship are in Duros,” Caruthers said. “I’m fluent, but the others aren’t. The overlay can just automatically translate everything into Basic–or Huttese.”

Ruffel nodded and sat town in the captain’s chair. “This is Captain Daari.” She was actually a captain by rank, albeit a brevet one for now. “We’re here to serve the Kingdom of Duros and its people. All of us. The Challenger is a Duros ship, commanded by a Duros captain, and is acting under orders from the King. The New Republic members with us are neither mission leaders not advisors. On this ship, they’re our fellow crewmembers, and they serve the Kingdom.

No heroics. Your duty is not to die for the Kingdom, but to make our enemies die for theirs. Captain Daari out.”

“That old cliché, Princess?”

“If I order you to stop calling me Princess, will you?” Ruffel glared at Caruthers.

“I prefer to call things as they are. I said before: you’re not in the Army because it needs another company commander or a corvette captain. You are here to acquire experience that your father thinks will serve you well when you become Queen. Like it or not–you’re a princess. You’re always a princess. If you steal this ship and start smuggling spice in the Outer Rim, you’ll be a runaway princess.”

Instead of responding, Ruffel turned to Cotta. “Put traffic control on the line.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Planetary control, this is RDS Challenger. Requesting clearance to depart the system.”

“RDS Challenger, we do not have a flight plan on file. What is your cargo and destination?”

“Military mission, code 349-B,” she said, and shook her head. In its long history, Duro had been through fragmented states, planetary unification, a mini-empire, a part of the Republic, a conquest of the Sith Empire, successively a member of the Republic, the CIS, and the Empire, and an independent Kingdom carved out by her father in the aftermath of the Galactic Civil War. And through all that time, the tradition of filing flight plans and what information they should contain remained largely unchanged, despite its uselessness. Once they were in orbit, they could jump to anywhere their navicomputer knew about, and nothing could enforce the destination they declared back on the ground.

“Who is the authorizing officer?”

“General Jade.”

That gave traffic control pause. Ruffel muted their end. “Did I say too much?”

“Jade probably has a dozen missions a day running under her authorization.”

“That’s not it,” Ruffel said. “Jade’s human.”

“Please tell me you’re not one of the idiots who doubts her loyalty to the Kingdom.”

“I’m not… but there are a lot of them. If this controller decides to cause us trouble because he’s one of them…”

“Cotta, start calculating the launch trajectory.”

“The traffic controller might not need to know where we’re going, Colonel, but I do.”

“Right,” Caruthers smiled. “Coruscant.”

“That’s… interesting.”

“Don’t get your hopes up. We’re unlikely to be seeing touristy places. As for the trouble with traffic control…” she looked at her chrono. “We made the request three minutes ago. If the delay lasts two more minutes, we take off unauthorized.”

“What? But–”

“Think, Princess. Civilian patrols have no authority over us. If he wants us to be stopped, he’ll have to go through First Defense Command. What’ll he tell them when they ask why he didn’t simply grant us clearance? What do you think Jade will do to him when she finds out?”

Ruffel produced a long sigh. “Yeah. Cause of termination: behavior detrimental to state security. Not many employers willing to ignore that on your record.”

“RDS Challenger, your departure clearance is granted. Stand by to receive coordinates. Your takeoff window opens in eighty seconds and will last three minutes.”

Ruffel tapped the transmission button again. “Acknowledged, control. Challenger out.”

Their pilot began altering the previously calculated route so that they ended in the same place even as they began with the coordinates control gave them.

A few minutes later, they had cleared the planet and were in hyperspace. “You told me I would know everything you do, Colonel. It’s time. Why are we going to Coruscant?”

“Let’s gather the crew,” Caruthers said. When Duros and New Republic troopers assembled in the ship’s galley, she looked them over and began.

“Some of you know my story already.”

The Twi'lek produced a muffled sound. Ruffel turned to her and then back to Caruthers.

“I said you know it. I didn’t say you believe it. I can’t make you do that. If this mission turns up proof–well, I can’t say I’ll be dissatisfied. But that’s not why we’re doing this. Let’s get this out of the way. I’m not from this galaxy.”

She proceeded to recount the travails of her ship, the USS Vicksburg. Then she held up a datapad. “Two days ago I picked up a signal. The content is heavily encrypted, but it definitely originated on Starfleet equipment and the metadata is unmistakable. It’s the Vicksburg. Why they are on Coruscant, why no one heard from them in thirty years, is a mystery.”

Ruffel frowned. “What does this have to do with Duro?”

“By itself? Nothing. But then there’s this transmission.”

She played a sound-only recording. “Pirates,” Caami said. “Somewhere in the Outer Rim.”

“It’s not the pirates. It’s who they fought. They were my people. I’ve convinced General Jade that establishing relations with them is worthwhile. I’ve no doubt they’ll pick up the same signal I did and come to investigate. So if we hurry, we won’t have to traipse all over the galaxy or send out transmissions to be overheard by the First Order.”

“How do you know it’s them?”

“Their conversation with the pirates. Only Starfleet of the United Federation of Planets takes that much pride in the name Enterprise.”

XXX​

Phasma knew something wrong as soon as the semblance of consciousness returned to her. She blinked–or rather, she tried to. The vision remained, and it was like nothing she’d ever seen. She was in a sickbay of a First Order facility, that was clear, but all the objects looked different–close enough for recognition, but with an unfamiliar level of detail.

That was it. Detail. Like she could focus on everything at once.

“She’s awake,” a voice said. A droid voice, and she also heard it in fine detail, down to the micro-echo within the SR-4’s vocoder chamber. “Where am I?”

Her voice seemed different, and she felt no touch of tongue on her teeth as she spoke. “I will inform General Hux,” the droid said.

Phasma tried to move her limbs. She didn’t know if she succeeded–she felt nothing. Evaluating herself, she realized she had vision, hearing, and smell, but no taste or touch. In fact, she couldn’t feel the existence of any part of her body.

A door slid open and Hux strode in. Phasma could see every wrinkle on his face, every individual strand of hair in his beard. He produced a grin.

“Captain Phasma.”

“General. What is going on?”

“Your body was far too damaged by the impacts and fire and vacuum. Your brain is now suspended in nutrient fluid, installed in a casing with sensors and a vocoder.”

“Why?”

“To fight. You are no longer limited by the frailty of the human body. We can build anything you want, and your brain will command that machine with seamless ease. Any combat droid, any vehicle, any starship. You will be the terror of the galaxy.”

“I didn’t know this was possible.”

“It’s an experimental program,” Hux said.

“Do I have a choice?”

He seemed to consider. “There’s little point in giving you the tools of war and having you use them half-heartedly, though we do have ways to make sure you don’t desert or turn on us. But we’re not going to keep you just for the sake of it. Say you won’t do it, and I will blast that nutrient jar with your brain apart.” He sneered. “As nature intended.”

“NO!” Phasma yelled. “NO! I will do it. On one condition.”

“What, Captain?”

“I get to hunt down the traitor who made me into this. FN-2187.”

 

2​

“This place gives me the creeps,” Halissa, the Twi'lek trooper admitted.

Ruffel privately agreed. They had descended down into the depths of Coruscant’s cityscape, deeper than any reliable account existed. Day and night made no difference, and the air was so stuffed with particulates that even the brightest light disappeared within fifty meters. As soon as they opened the hatch, the smell caused four of their number to retch violently. They had donned breathing masks and carried their own oxygen supply now.

“If my father refused, would you have gone here alone?” she asked Caruthers.

“No. I prefer you to hiring mercs or buying a squad of security droids… but alone…” She raised her blaster rifle and fired. The flash briefly lit a blotchy shape with long limbs, which grunted and sputtered off.

They had had a firefight some two hundred meters back with similar creatures attacking from all sides. No one could tell how many there had been, nor how many they killed–the survivors dragged the bodies away. At least they possessed some learning capacity, and few tried to hinder them anymore. But Ruffel had no doubt that they were constantly being watched.

“Why would anyone put a signal here?”

“Probably to make it difficult to find. Stop.”

“Something wrong?”

“No… but the signal got weaker. Again.”

“Might just be a different material interfering. There’s nothing here.”

“No… I don’t think so. Form a perimeter, please.”

Ruffel didn’t like that, but gave the orders. Caruthers wandered inside the circle of soldiers for a little bit, making smaller and smaller steps. “Right here,” she finally said.

Ruffel exchanged a look with Halissa. “Like I said. Nothing here.”

“Get out the digger droid.”

“Seriously? We’re already on Coruscant’s natural surface.”

“No, we aren’t,” Halissa corrected her.

“It’s not permacrete, or anything like that. Feels like natural rock,” Corporal Nuud said.

“It is and it isn’t,” the Twi'lek said. “It’s formed like natural rock. Natural sedimentary rock, to be precise. Compression of debris over millennia. But the debris itself is not natural. Byproducts of Coruscant’s civilization. Garbage.”

Ruffel was skeptical. “But sedimentary rock is formed underwater.”

“Correct,” Halissa said. “This place was probably flooded until recently, when something caused the water to divert. Recently meaning in the past several thousand years.”

“When was Coruscant built over?”

“That’s not the right question, Colonel,” Halissa said. “All evidence says it was a planet like most others capable of supporting humanoid life at one time.”

“M-Class, we call them in Starfleet. That’s obvious.”

“There is no definite date, it’s a gradual process.” She waved her arm around. “Archaeology is difficult, for obvious reasons. Most hypotheses say more than fifty and less than a hundred thousand years.”

Ruffel brought them back. “Why would this matter?”

“Our little droid can handle a hundred thousand years of deposits,” Caruthers understood. “If we get to real natural rock, we’re talking hundreds of millions, possibly billions.”

The droid had descended some sixty centimeters into the bedrock when Caruthers’ datapad beeped. She frowned. “Strange.”

“What’s wrong?” Ruffel demanded. “Did you lose the signal?”

“No. I’m no geologist, but this sonic reading seems off to me? Halissa, look at this.”

She handed the Twi'lek the screen and took up a position in the circle with her rifle. Halissa squinted at the screen, tapped a few keys, clicked with her mouth several times.“

"OK… the signal is directly below… about ninety centimeters more, and it’s encased in something dense, probably some non-corrosive metal. Makes sense. But according to these readings, there’s about a kilometer long, meter wide infusion of a different rock ending right at that enclosure.”

“Coincidence?”

“Unlikely, though cause and effect can go either way. But that infusion is not dense enough. I don’t know any process by which it can form…”

“Which way is it going?” Ruffel asked.

Halissa pointed back in the direction of their ship.

“What’s the exact density?”

“3.25 grams per cubic centimete–Oh, crap!”

Ruffel whipped our her comlink. “Cotta, take off now! We need to be picked up, but do not land!” She turned to the rest of the group. “Run!”

Caruthers, fortunately, didn’t start asking questions. Instead she took off instantly. Why became obvious when the rest picked up pace: humans could normally run faster than Duros or Twi'leks, but Caruthers was nearly twice the age of most of them.

They barely made it; Halissa was the last to be pulled aboard and the ramp began to lift when the rock beneath them ruptured in flame and millions of sharp fragments. The ship tumbled helplessly, hot air poured through the still-open hatch, scalding them and setting fire to a few uniforms. Retardant foam poured from the ceiling, quenching the flames.

Challenger kept spinning and shaking, alarms wailed throughout the corridors. “Caami, I need power!” Caruthers shouted over the intercom. “And Cotta’s wounded!”

Ruffel first headed to engineering, where Caami, sweat pouring over her, fiddled with reactor controls. On her way to the cockpit, she detailed everyone she encountered into damage control.

One of the viewports had lost its transparisteel and was covered by the emergency plate of metal, obstructing the view. Not that there was much to see–rocks, and flame, and flaming rocks that occasionally hit the ship, causing it to shudder. Caruthers watched the scanner and every few seconds, performed a rapid maneuver. Sometimes, a piece of debris comparable in size to the Challenger fell by within a few meters.

Cotta was clutching a stump of his right arm and bleeding from a wound a half meter from the tail tip, where a piece of transparisteel lodged itself. Ruffel pulled out an emergency medkit and centered herself. She’d never treated a Hutt before, nor was Hutt physiology covered in her training.

“I can’t be lucky forever, Caami!” Caruthers shouted. “Where are those shields?!” As if emphasizing, Challenger‘s deck suddenly tilted almost forty degrees and the entire hull groaned under stress.

“Glancing impact,” Caruthers said. “Eight hundred-ton shard. This isn’t an X-Wing!”

“Shields up, half-power!” Caami’s voice announced.

Caruthers jerked a lever on the control board and Ruffel dropped a scalpel. She was pushed to the floor and had to struggle breathing; the acceleration nearly tripled her weight.

“Are you crazy?” she shouted at Caruthers. The New Republic officer used the Challenger’s shields to ram through a thick cloud of falling debris at nearly two machs, with a couple of kilometers ascent in several seconds. Luckily, the battering hadn’t lasted long.

“Here,” Caruthers said in the way of answer and tilted the ship so one transparisteel window faced downward.

An entire section of the city had collapsed; what used to be an open deep shaft was now a pile of metal and permacrete. It wasn’t settled yet, and the lake of rubble moved and rippled, belching flame and smoke and sparks. Ruffel nodded. A couple of seconds more, and the Challenger would have been buried under it all.

Caami walked in, supported by Corporal Nuud, who was applying a bacta patch to the engineering officer’s scalp. “What happened?”

“You saved us,” Caruthers told Caami. “Shields…” and then, glancing at the instruments, she produced a deep fricative murmur. “Eleven percent? And… wow.”

“Huh? What’s wrong?”

“Wrong?” Caruthers said. “Is this real?” she tapped the comprehensive damage indicator. “We’re still flying, I’ve got control, and shields, and even weapons with this. I knew you Duros build them tough, but… wow. Compared to a New Republic or Imperial or Starfleet vessel… wow.”

“Everything is a compromise,” Cotta said.

“I know. You pay in speed and firepower, neither of which would have been much use now.”

“Speed might have,” Ruffel said. “If we got here before whoever laid that trap did.”

“We might also need firepower now,” Nuud told them. “Incoming armed vessels.”

“CSF,” Caruthers told them. “They won’t be happy. I’m not letting them bracket us. How’re you, Cotta?”

“Can’t fly,” the Hutt said, waving the stump. “Other than that… we Hutts are kind of like this ship. Tough.”

“OK. Still… see the medical droid in sickbay, just in case.” She took up the controls again and turned the ship upwards.

Another surprise awaited them in orbit. “Star Destroyer!”

“First Order? Here?” Nuud wondered.

“Not quite,” Caruthers looked ridiculously happy, and didn’t even bother evading the warship. Ruffel could instantly see that it was atypical, from its white paint with large blue symbols, to oval protrusions that made it look more amorphous, organic, less like a giant blade piercing space.

“Open a comm channel,” Caruthers said. “It’s them,” she assured.

“They got a First Order Star Destroyer?”

“Captured, probably. I’m sure they’ll tell us the story.”

The communicator chirped. “Unknown ship, this is the USS Enterprise. Please respond.”

“Enteprise, this is Blair Caruthers, formerly of the USS Vicksburg, Starfleet ID 22313792-H. Requesting permission to dock RDS Challenger. We’ve got wounded aboard.”

There was a pause before a new voice intervened. “Permission granted, Challenger. Launch bay four, port side.”

“Lieutenant Ferraro?” Caruthers exclaimed, turning the ship to move it to the Star Destroyer’s underbelly.

“Captain Ferraro now. It looks like hell down there.”

“We just came from it. Barely escaped alive. Someone got to the signal first and booby-trapped it.”

There was silence. “We’ll talk later,” Ferraro finally said. “Welcome back, Caruthers.”

XXX​

Ruffel had dozed off in the Enterprise’s sickbay watching over Caami, Cotta, and others in her crew who’d been injured. Starfleet went out of the way to not make it look like they were prisoners, even if the sheer numbers of the ship made it a polite fiction. The hale crew could stay together, and weren’t relieved of their weapons. But the ship jumped into hyperspace almost the moment Challenger was brought aboard, and no one would tell her where.

Something touched her shoulder and she jerked and thought to reach for her blaster. “Hey,” Caruthers said. “It’s me.”

“Fun reunion?” Ruffel snarked.

“Not that fun. Now Starfleet can reel from Hosnian Prime like the rest of us. Admiral Nog and Captain Ferraro want to talk to us.”

“Why?”

“To try to make sense of what happened on Coruscant, I expect. It doesn’t make sense to me, and I doubt you’re better.”

Ruffel and Caruthers made their way to a conference room where they met a middle-aged dark-haired human woman and an unfamiliar large-eared alien. “Captain Thanya Ferraro,” the human introduced herself. Ruffel recognized the voice. “I command the USS Enterprise.”

“Admiral Nog,” the alien extended his hand. “Sorry to keep you waiting, but we wanted to do some additional investigation. You told us you received a Starfleet signal on Coruscant, but when you got there, it set off a mine and collapsed a chunk of the city.”

“Well, I can’t vouch for the Starfleet portion,” Ruffel said. “That was all on her word. But the explosion happened.”

“Caused quite a stir. I’ve ordered the USS Delta Quadrant to stay behind and give emergency assistance as well as discretely find out what happened. They’ll rendezvous with us soon, but we’ve received a report from the science officer. It was a Starfleet signal, and it definitely belonged to the USS Vicksburg. Unfortunately, the explosion caused too much damage to determine anything else.”

Ruffel felt there was some omission. “Nothing else? Really?”

Captain Ferraro stirred. “I trust the science officer–”

Nog snorted. “It’s not a big secret that she’s your daughter, Captain.”

“There’s enough rumors that she’s getting through on nepotism already. Sorry, Admiral, but with the way you diverged with your family, you don’t know what that’s like.

"Anyway,” Ferraro turned back to them, “according to the report, pieces of the Vicksburg recovered have been made about sixty thousand years ago. But that’s impossible. The ship arrived here thirty years ago, and it was three years old then.”

“Time travel?” Caruthers postulated.

“Is that a joke?” Ruffel demanded.

“We considered it,” Ferraro admitted. “If it is, it didn’t happen by any known mechanism.”

Ruffel stared. “You. Know. How. To. Time. Travel.”

“We have experience with the phenomenon,” Caruthers admitted. “It’s… discouraged.”

“To put it mildly,” Nog said. “If it was, it happened by a mechanism unknown to us. But that doesn’t square with another thing.”

“That’s speculation,” Thanya said.

“That’s your intuition based on experience,” Nog corrected. “I trust it.”

“What?” Ruffel and Caruthers asked simultaneously.

“The way the trap worked. It was designed for someone like you,” Ferraro said. “Whoever did it took out whatever was identified by the original signal and installed the explosives specifically to do exactly what it did. Particularly, it was designed to make the collapse center on the place most where it was most likely someone looking for the signal would land their ship.”

“Why would that matter?”

“Ideally,” Ferraro continued as if the interruption didn’t happen, “it was meant to destroy whoever looked for the signal, their ship, and any physical evidence of what was buried in one blow. We were tracing the signal ourselves. Someone just looking over the remains would have no idea anything of importance was even there, and there would be nobody living to tell them. It matters because it’s a modus operandi I’ve seen before, and heard more about. The trap looks to be engineered by Voss Torel.”

Caruthers sighed. “Not again.”

“Who’s Voss Torel?”

“An Imperial operative we on the Vicksburg had had the misfortune to run afoul,” Caruthers said.

“And that’s the problem. The two threads contradict each other. Recovered parts of the Vicksburg are sixty thousand years old. There are no records of the Vicksburg since our unfortunate experiment at the end of the war. And at the time, Torel was aboard.”

XXX​

The security droid awoke Armitage Hux with a gentle sound sent directly into his ear canal. Loud alarms let everyone–including the intruder–know someone was onto them. Whoever was slicing his personal quarters’ security system was going to get a nasty surprise now.

“Put the blaster down.”

The command came from above. Hux lifted his head and saw a middle-aged man dressed in a uniform of a First Order major. He was aiming his own blaster straight at Hux.

“I have demonstrated that I do not intend to kill you, General. Put the blaster down,” the man repeated.

“I will if you get down to the floor.”

The man laughed and flipped as he dropped, landing on his feet. Hux reluctantly kept the promise. “How did you get in?”

“I used to be Sheev’s assassin,” he explained. “Name’s Voss Torel.”

“Really? I’d expect someone like that to help found the First Order.”

“I got… unlucky. Spent years in a New Republic prison before escaping. And then… I wanted to know if the First Order was worthy.”

“And what made you decide it was?”

“Hosnian Prime. Also… I finally had something useful to offer besides my skills.”

“Like what?”

Torel didn’t answer directly at first. “Are you pleased that all your work, all your armies are beholden to some tantrum-throwing Rebel spawn just because he has access to the Force?”

Hux turned crimson. “He is Supreme Leader.”

“And are you pleased to serve him?” Torel repeated. “Do you believe his lies about the girl killing Snoke?”

“Of course I don’t! Lies are tools.”

“So they are. I find that one of limited use. But are you pleased?”

“No.”

“You want to be Supreme Leader yourself.”

“That’s treason,” Hux murmured.

“Only the dumbest never think treasonous thoughts. And under the circumstances, you probably convinced yourself it’s even rational to accept Kylo Ren’s rule. He has the Force, after all.”

Anger was boiling within Hux. Torel was saying so much of what he’s been privately thinking. “During the war, a ship arrived from another galaxy,” Torel lectured. “It was crewed by the most self-righteous bunch I’ve ever met. Of course they joined the Alliance. I was tasked to steal their technology for the Empire. I didn’t succeed before Endor.”

“But you did eventually.”

“Quite recently, in fact. I’ve got it. All blueprints conveniently packed away.” He drew a datacard from his pocket. “Of particular interest is their matter teleporter.”

“That doesn’t exist.”

“It will once we build one. That’s powerful enough on its own, but during my attempts to steal it, I learned somewhat how it works. Under some circumstances, it malfunctions in an interesting way. Put a person through it and when they appear at the destination… all their midiclorians are gone. Oops. No more Force.”

Hux blinked several times, and then moaned out in greed. “Tell me more,” he pleaded.

 

3​

“Have you ever met her?”

“In passing,” Caruthers said. “I was a junior officer in a greatly reduced New Republic fleet, and she was a Senator.”

“I still can’t believe she is the daughter of Darth Vader.”

“I would avoid mentioning it.”

Ruffel inclined her head, not having eyebrows to raise. “I can be diplomatic.”

“That’s reassuring. One princess to another.”

The freighter finished maneuvering and gently descended to the hangar deck. Admiral Nog and Captain Ferraro stepped forward. Ruffel still wasn’t sure what to make of the Federation. Her kingdom, the First Order, the New Republic would have had at least a company of armed troopers on parade under the circumstances. Ferraro had two detachment of eight security troopers each positioned to either side, and both she and Nog carried hand phasers at their belts.

The first to descend down the ramp was a young woman in a gray tunic. Ruffel’s eyes instantly focused on the lightsaber she carried at her side. “A Jedi?”

The woman focused on her for a moment before resuming to warily scan the surroundings. She was followed by two armed men, who also looked at them.

“Greetings on behalf of the United Federation of Planets,” Nog said. “I’m Admiral Nog. Welcome aboard the Enterprise.”

“Looks clear,” the older of the two men muttered.

Three more people went down the ramp: a large Wookiee, another young woman in coveralls, and between them… her.“

"Thank you for receiving us,” General Leia Organa replied. “On behalf–”

“Liars!” the newly arrived young woman suddenly shouted and pulled out her blaster. “Don’t trust them!”

Nog and Ferraro reacted instantly by dropping to the deck, rolling off to the side and coming up on their knees with phasers trained on the Resistance party. The heretofore inconspicuous security personnel also became apparent, phaser rifles in hands. The first young woman ignited her lightsaber, the two men raised blasters, and the Wookiee unslung his bowcaster.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Leia demanded. “Spe–”

“This is my ship,” Ferraro declared. “I’ll be asking the questions.”

The one who started the confrontation choked out the words. “How–dare–liar–”

“Rose?” one of the men gently asked her.

“That–woman–” she pointed at Captain Ferraro. “She… looks just like my mother. My–dead–mother. This ship is a First Order lie, all of it.”

“Put your weapons down, everyone,” Leia ordered. Nog nodded, and Starfleet guards also lowered the rifles. “An explanation other than First Order deception is in order, though.”

“Any twin sisters I don’t know about, Captain Ferraro?” Nog joked.

The captain shook her head. “Ferraro was my mother’s maiden name,” Rose whispered.

“And what’s yours?” the captain faced her accuser directly.

“Rose,” she declared. “Rose Tico.”

Ferraro took a deep breath. “This is surreal. Your parents–”

“Hue and Thanya Tico. We–”

“My name is Thanya,” Ferraro said. “And I was married to Hue Tico while the Vicksburg was here. Did you grow up on Hays Minor?”

“I did–wait, how did you know that? You can’t be–”

“I’m not,” she said. “I think I would remember giving birth to a third child.”

“Third?” Rose asked. “My older sister–”

“Paige,” Thanya and Rose said together.

“And people think we are strange,” Ruffel muttered.

“My sister is dead,” Rose said. “You can’t know–”

“I’m sorry… Rose. You’ve been hurt enough. But if we’re getting to the bottom of this, we’re going to need to bring in another person.” Ferraro tapped her combadge. “Ferraro to T'Viradi.”

“How may I help?”

“Have Lieutenant Tico report to conference room two onboard Enterprise.”

“As you wish, Captain. T'Viradi out.”

“I should have asked this first, but does anyone among you need medical help?” Nog questioned Leia.

“Not urgent. We do need rest, and then we need help in taking the fight to the First Order,” she answered.

“We’ll do our best,” he assured. “But let’s continue in more comfortable surroundings.”

All through their trip through the corridors, Rose didn’t surrender her suspicious stare at Captain Ferraro for a moment. Finally, they reached a small door where they were greeted by another Starfleet officer, one with lieutenant’s pips on a blue collar.

Rose gave one look at her and collapsed.

XXX​

Dr. Wiol Faw was the last of the Enterprise‘s senior crew to arrive. He sat down next to the unconscious Rose Tico and injected something into her neck. The Resistance specialist’s eyes fluttered, and she looked around in confusion.

“What… what happened?”

“You fainted,” Finn supplied.

“I thought I remember seeing Pae-Pae again…”

“Pae-Pae?” two voices echoed in a mixture of anger and amusement.

Rose turned to them. “Steady,” Dr Faw commanded.

“This is not possible.”

“Since we’re here, it’s obviously possible,” Captain Ferraro lectured. “In fact, I think I have a handle on how.”

“I’d love to know that,” Leia said. “The sisters came to me when their parents made them flee the First Order invasion.”

Thanya sighed. “I take it that Lieutenant Tico, does, in fact, look identical to Rose’s older sister,” she asked. “In the same manner that I look like her mother.”

Rose managed a nod, having trouble holding steady.

“Paige is my daughter,” Ferraro said. “I also have a son back home. I would have known about a second daughter. Rose is correct in one matter. I’m not your mother.”

“But… you said you know how this happened? She–you–her–”

“I’m equally perplexed,” Lieutenant Paige Tico said.

Rose stared again. “You even sound like her… and yet there’s something…”

“Captain Ferraro, you said you have a hypothesis,” Nog said.

“Only that, unfortunately. Proof will only come by if we find the USS Vicksburg. Which if I’m right is unlikely.”

“Mirror universe?” Nog suggested.

“From what I read, the differences there would be obvious.”

“Later,” Nog responded to the curious stares, and then turned back to Ferraro. “Well?”

“The Tom Riker effect.”

“Oh,” Blair Caruthers whispered. Ruffel and the Resistance still stared in confusion.

“No technology is perfect. The transporter is a technology. On one known occasion, we had a person beamed up to his starship, but fail to dematerialize on the planet below. So you had two people, identical at the moment. This might have happened to me, as well.”

“And please don’t ask which was the original and which is the copy. That question has neither an objective answer nor practical significance,” Ferraro insisted. “And if I’m right, we have more pressing worries.”

“What, specifically?” Leia asked.

“If I was subject to the Tom Riker effect, it happened when I left Hays Minor with the Vicksburg. I haven’t beamed between that time and my return to the Federation.”

“Wait,” Rose said. “Even accepting this duplication, it only explains you. It doesn’t explain her.” She pointed at Lieutenant Tico.

“Yes it does,” Ferraro said. “I was pregnant.”

Paige and Rose looked at each other oddly. “I won’t try to be your mother, and Paige shouldn’t try to be your sister, Rose. That doesn’t mean we can’t be family,” Ferraro said. “Back to the point. That last transport involved two other people. It’s far more likely that the Tom Riker effect captured all three of us than me being singled out. Which meant that these people, whom we all assumed were lost with the Vicksburg, also remained here.”

“Who were the two people?”

“Former Jedi Ahsoka Tano,” Ferraro said. “And the prisoner she brought to us. Emperor’s Hand Voss Torel.”

XXX​

Rose looked across the hangar, where the Duros crew scuttled about their ship, making repairs. Normally, a vessel like that would have been fascinating–a very different design from the Resistance and First Order hardware she usually dealt with. Currently, she found its capacity for distraction almost nonexistent. Whatever the explanation the Federation provided, she had just seen her mother and sister again.

No. I haven’t. They aren’t–

She saw Finn come in with a group of others and rushed to meet him. They kissed. “You won’t believe what happened.”

“Sure I will,” she joked.

He gestured at a tall man who arrived with them. “Rose, this is Captain Cardinal. He trained us as children.”

“In the First Order?” Rose frowned.

“Vi brought me out,” Cardinal said, gesturing at the woman next to him. “I was left for dead by Phasma.”

“She’s gone,” Finn assured.

Leia led the small group to the Duros vessel. “Excuse me? Is Captain Daari aboard?”

“What do you need her for?” the voice of Blair Caruthers echoed from inside Challenger.

“New information,” Leia announced. “I don’t like briefing twice, or making someone else do it.”

Something clanked. “I’ll get her,” Caruthers said.

It took several minutes, and the Duros in the pair was blinking rapidly. “This better be worth it,” she groaned.

Several other Duros stopped working and raised their heads at seeing their captain. “Go ahead, you two,” Leia gestured at Vi and Cardinal.

“I’ll make it as short as possible,” Vi said. “We’ve been gathering intelligence for the Resistance and we came across a tidbit both personally relevant to us and, according to General Organa, of interest to the Kingdom of Duro.”

“The Absolution,” Cardinal explained. “She’s been damaged in the recent fighting at Poniari.”

“That’s an agri-world,” Captain Daari said. “How did it damage a Star Destroyer?”

“Apparently, Poniari has been a home base for a merc fleet for some time now,” Vi said. “They tried it with just Absolution, and then called for backup and destroyed every settlement on the planet. The mercs scattered once those paying them were dead.”

“Obviously such a place doesn’t have the facilities to repair Absolution, so they took her in tow and brought it to Viwen.”

“That’s not First Order territory,” Finn said.

“No,” Daari agreed. “It’s in the Lammo Hegemony.” Every Duros reacted instantly, Leia closed her eyes and sighed, but Finn’s face appeared to have the same surprise Rose felt.

“What is the Lammo Hegemony?” she asked.

Several people appeared ready to answer. Caruthers got in first, her face contorted with hatred. “Scum,” she said. “Absolute scum.”

 

4​

“Thank you, Dr. Faw,” Blair Caruthers said. “Is he up?”

The Trill nodded. “You can come in.”

In addition to the obvious cuts by transparisteel shards, she was told Cotta had required a lot of surgery to repair internal injuries caused by gravitational overload. Telling herself that she had to drive the ship at maximum thrust, or they’d all be buried under the rubble on Coruscant helped not at all. She steeled herself.

“Hello, Cotta,” she greeted. “Are you alright?”

“Have to… restrict movement,” he admitted. “You think they’re right, and I’ll recover fully? Doesn’t feel like it.”

“Starfleet medicine is known to be good, even with unfamiliar species. I’m inclined to trust them.” She paused. “I’m really sorry. I didn’t think that with the pieces in you, high G’s would be outright dangerous. You always did claim Hutts are tough. Without that stress, you’d be fully fit by now.”

“And what use would a pilot be if we were trapped in the explosion?” he said. “You’re going somewhere,” he realized.

“I’m not waiting for the Republic to convene a new Senate and declare war on the First Order. Something has come up.”

“Challenger needs a second pilot,” Cotta said.

“Don’t worry about that. Just… get well.”

“And then?”

“Ahhh. The crux of the matter. I have been somewhat disingenuous with you. Why’d you come with me on the mission?”

“You were our superior officer. You gave the orders.”

“It’s quite obvious that I had no way of making those orders enforced. I counted on you, Halissa, and Dozin ignoring that fact for a while. The danger was beyond what I expected, beyond what I had a right to subject you to. It’s expected now. My life is mine to risk. Yours isn’t.”

“But what of the Republic?”

She smiled. “Indeed. We’re about to find out.”

“I don’t understand.”

“There are objective things; things that remain as they are regardless of any people believing in them or even knowing about them. There are subjective things; things that exist in the mind of one person and go away if they stop believing in them. And then there are things whose existence depends on the number of people that believe in them. Most of the things people care about are like that. Love. Beauty. Justice. Money. Power. The Republic exists to the extent that you and I and a myriad of other people in the galaxy believe in it. That’s always the case, but the lack of visible power behind it makes it more obvious. And despite all its visible power, the First Order is also one of those things.”

She rose. “Good luck, Cotta. I still believe in the Republic. I think you do too, but that’s not for me to answer. And I hope there are enough others to keep it real.”

XXX​

“What is it, Princess?”

“Can we trust them?” Ruffel pointed up the corridor towards Finn, Rose, and Captain Cardinal, who’d join them on this mission. “From what I hear, two used to work for the First Order.”

“That’s a better reason to trust them. They’re traitors, and the First Order isn’t merciful.”

“It’s also an easy way to slip in a spy.”

“One: you can’t suspect everybody of everything; it just diffuses focus. Two: the thing about starships is that once in space, even the worst of enemies aboard get a common interest. Three, most importantly: we’re not going to the Kingdom. Only our mission is at stake for now.”

“Not very reassuring.”

“You’re my captain. Starfleet officers don’t lie to their captains. Especially lies of the sort the captain wants to hear.”

“Really? Never?”

“We’re not supposed to. Is everything alright?”

“I contacted General Jade. She approved.”

Caruthers considered for a long time. “Was that a mistake?” Ruffel asked.

“Not for me to answer. You’re an officer in the Royal Duros Army, and Jade is your superior.”

“But you would have advised against it.”

“I don’t know,” she said. “What did Jade say?”

“Approved, as I said. Then… ‘what you don’t know, you can’t reveal’.”

“She’s right about that. Alright. Everyone aboard?”

“Dozin–”

“Won’t be coming. I’m not upset. I prefer not to command people for whom my orders mean nothing unless they’re backed up with force.”

“Well, then we’re all ready.”

“Not quite.” Caruthers strode forward to the cockpit, looked around, and tapped the ship’s intercom. “Attention, this is New Republic Lieutenant Colonel Blair Caruthers, XO of RDS Challenger. This is a briefing about our mission, so pay attention. We’re going to the Lammo Hegemony.”

Rose and Finn gave wide-eyed stares. Cardinal put on a frown. the Duros expressed a spectrum of dislikes.

“Lammo Hegemony was founded by an Imperial admiral turned warlord in the aftermath of the Civil War. His name was, in fact, Admiral Lammo. They had gone through a series of leaders, each one taking on the name ‘Admiral Lammo’ upon ascension. Some of them have been children and grandchildren of the original Lammo, but not all. The fate of the previous leader was usually gruesome death.

"Lammo has fought three big wars and numerous skirmishes with the Kingdom of Duro, founded at about the same time by the father of our captain here, King Gelemod Daar. When the Lammos lost a planet, they killed it before withdrawing their forces. I’m not talking about taking what’s valuable and blowing up facilities. They left the planet worse off than it would have been as a wilderness. Wrecked infrastructure, burned crops, poisoned water, people sold into slavery en mass. None of the systems in the Kingdom that were once part of the Hegemony are of any use beyond extraction of base metal, am I correct about that?”

Caami, the chief engineer, nodded. “I’ve been to some of those systems. It’s hard enough keeping pollutants at bay on the major worlds of the Kingdom. Reclaiming these… maybe in a few centuries.”

“But that isn’t the greatest crime,” Caruthers continued. “Many civilizations had periods of mass ignorance in their history, yours and mine included. From lack of resources, from ideological blinders, from prioritizing something other than education. But Lammo is the only one I know, now or in history, that seems to be deliberately uneducating its people. And it’s not stratification. Degradation among their elites is just as strong–not as noticeable, since there’s further for them to fall. But it’ll get there.

"Just two weeks ago, I’ve talked to a shipful of refugees from there brought in after their freighter was disabled in deep space and found by a Duros military patrol. They wouldn’t talk to anyone on base, and attacked anyone who approached. Colonel Noodi asked me to help when she had to fill the barracks with knockout gas for the third time. Do you know what I found out?”

She looked at the Duros in the crew, but no one seemed inclined to speak. “Not even you, Princess? Very well. They were afraid the Duros were going to eat them.”

That produced two dozen open mouths. “What the hell?” Caami demanded.

“Colonel Noodi needed records of my conversations to be convinced, too. I will discipline whoever jokes about them not tasting good. It’s not funny. It’s a tragedy, with the consequences spilling beyond the Lammo Hegemony now. And we’re about to witness that tragedy up close.”

“But… why?” Rose asked.

“Lammo wasn’t the brightest from the start,” Caruthers said. “The initial impetus was likely from the First Order or its predecessors, and once started, such things tend to feed on themselves. As to why… consider what it cost you. How much less flexible the Kingdom is, military, with an unstable enemy on the border. For the fight against the First Order, a fleet or division arrayed against Lammo might as well not exist.”

“We’re not at war with the First Order,” someone protested.

“Yet,” Ruffel retorted. “Come on, Iroom. Be real.”

“They left us alone.”

“Consuming the New Republic will take time, even in the state we were in. Your turn might not even be next. But it’ll come.”

“So what are we to be doing in the Lammo Hegemony?” Caami inquired.

“Captain Cardinal?” Caruthers prompted.

“I have been captain of the Absolution. I know her. I know her crew. I know her droids. We’re going to steal that ship and turn it against the First Order. Doing it in a Lammo shipyard is less riskier.”

“Not to mention raising suspicions between Lammo and the First Order. Have that tradeoff work for us,” Caami understood.

“Exactly. Which reminds me, Caruthers. We need to change our transponder. Have us impersonate a Resistance vessel.”

“Tico?”

“On it. What should be we name her?”

“Keep Challenger,” Ruffel said. “Just don’t have us identify as Duros. We do sell these ships, so the design alone isn’t a certainty.”

“Yes, ma'am.” Rose and Caami left for the engineering section and Ruffel sat down in the captain’s chair. “Calculation?”

“Starting up,” Cardinal announced.

“May the Force be with us,” Finn whispered.

Caruthers flipped the comm. “Enterprise, this is Challenger. Requesting opening hangar and departure clearance.”

“One moment, Challenger, the voice of Nog came through. "General Organa requested you take on another person.”

Ruffel frowned. “We have more crew than this ship was made for,” she said.

“The room isn’t the issue. Organa thinks she has a good reason. It’s your call, captain.”

“Permission granted, Admiral. How long–”

“Right now, I think,” Caruthers pointed to a figure outside the viewport, heading for their ship.

The others peered through and then Finn grinned in astonishment. “Rey?”

 

Lol. I knew the Enterprise would show up eventually. And what a slap in the face to the First Order that the newest Enterprise is a captured star destroyer.

 

That is very much the point, as is making the captain the one officer in the Federation who came from the Vicksburg, and is thus, a member of the Rebel Alliance as well as Starfleet. In earlier drafts of my story, I've had a certain concept stated explicitly, but this version had nowhere good to place it. There's still the implication in Garak's conversation with the Bajoran partisans in part II. The concept is:

The Federation treats everyone, including their current enemies, as future members.

And that's despite the fact that they obviously 1)have rules for joining and 2)don't make anyone join by force. Acting in this manner means extreme confidence in your own values. The antithesis of the First Order.

 

5​

“Lock complete.”

“I can’t believe it worked,” Vie whispered.

“You didn’t think I could do it?” Cardinal demanded.

“It’s not you. I didn’t think your access codes would still be valid.”

“They aren’t,” Cardinal said. “But the droids are the same.”

“Last chance to run,” Captain Daari said. “Go or not?”

“We go,” Cardinal said. FN-2–sorry, Finn and Rey are going out first and will talk to the cadets.“

They got ready. "Opening airlock… now.”

The hatch slid open to reveal a dozen First Order stormtrooper helmets. “HOLD! YOUR! FIRE!” Cardinal shouted.

“Captain… Captain Cardinal?” someone asked.

“That’s correct, SG-2398,” Cardinal replied, and headed straight down.

“We thought you were dead.”

“It was close,” he admitted. “How are things here?”

“Bad, sir. Everyone‘s been questioned, some just disappeared. Squads are being split up…”

“Don’t have to say more. Where did the Seebies take shop?”

He was interrupted before getting an answer. “Wait–FN-2187?”

Finn stepped forward. “Yeah, it’s me.”

“Old buddies?” Rey teased.

“No,” the questioner said. “But OL-2204 talked a lot about you… before they took him.”

Finn jerked. “Damn…”

“Hang on…,” another cadet murmured suspiciously. “But you are… you are…” She was pointing at Rey and unable to gather words.

“Rey,” the Jedi said.

“But… they say you killed the Supreme Leader. They call you a monster!”

A series of giggles came from the Challenger’s interior. “Monster,” Rose pointed at her, barely holding in the laugh. Finn and Vi managed to limit themselves to smiling.

“Who’s they?” Cardinal demanded.

“Propaganda holos. More now than when you were around, sir.”

“Don’t believe everything,” Rey replied. “Seebies?” she asked Cardinal.

“First Order Security Bureau,” Vi explained. “Good question. Where are they?”

“Deck 9, section 13,” a cadet answered. “But they also have officers stationed at every major location…”

“Here’s the plan,” Cardinal announced. “You arm yourselves just in case and get word out that I’m back. Company E and F, you can come with me.”

“Sixteen and seventeen year-olds,” Finn explained to Rey the singling out.

“Two squads from the Challenger,” Cardinal continued. “Squad One, help Vi escort Rose to Engineering. Squad two, with Finn to take out the Seebie HQ. That one is certain to get hot, so Rey, you’re going along. I’m heading to the bridge.”

“Wait… sir?” the cadet who identified Rey spoke up. “Are we doing a mutiny?”

“You are doing a mutiny,” Cardinal corrected. “I am committing piracy.”

“But that’s against everything the First Order stands for!”

“No, MR-2986. It’s against everything the First Order should stand for. I’ve learned the difference in a very hard way, and as always, I’m passing that knowledge to you.”

XXX​

“Section 13,” Finn said. “They’re right below us.”

Rey paced around. “The design is inherited from Imperial-class, right?”

“Mostly,” he replied. “Why?”

“Because if they do, then there’s a support beam right here,” she tapped a section of the wall.

“How’d you know that?” MR-2986 inquired.

“Scavenger on Jakku. I cut through the beam, and a portion of the deck collapses right on top of the Seebies.”

Finn nodded, but raised his hand when she drew the lightsaber. “One moment.” He activated the comlink. “Captain, we’re in position.”

“Acknowledged, Finn. Vi, status.”

“Approaching engineering. Disguises are working so far.”

“Go, both of you. Good luck.”

“Stand back,” Rey said. The blue blade emerged from the shaft in her hand. She closed her eyes, focused and swung into the wall.

CREAK. Rey leapt backward to avoid getting caught in the debris that rained down, but as soon as the opening in the deck was large enough, she dropped into it, sliding down. The Security Bureau troopers below opened fire and the lightsaber started to dance.

“With me!” Finn shouted and fire his rifle.

Alarms blared. “Intruder alert! Intruder alert!”

“Surrender!”

“Jedi abomination!” someone yelled.

“Grenade!” Finn warned.

Rey raised her hand and hurled the projectile back at its source with the Force. The detonation roared through the corridors.

“Surrender!” Finn repeated the demand.

A few troopers gave a momentary pause before blaster bolts hit them in the backs and they fell.

“Son of–get them!”

Rey shut down the lightsaber and moved off to the side, letting Finn lead the frontal attack. Combining leaping and climbing, she got back up to deck 8, ran across the compartment, and plunged the lightsaber into the floor.

“Freeze!”

Rey pulled the lighsaber back and deflected the security troopers’ bolts. “That’s right!” she yelled. “I’m the monster who killed Snoke! Drop your weapons and run!”

She focused into the Force at that last command, and the attackers obeyed. Focusing once again on the deck, she finished cutting the circular hole. The cutout dropped; it would have hit the Seebie officer, but he was a quick dodger. He couldn’t however, dodge that and Rey’s kick. In moments, he was weaponless, on his back, and had a lightsaber at his throat.

“Surrendering would hurt less,” she declared at his whimper.

“This was the one who was shooting the others in the back?” Finn demanded, coming up with a mixed group of stormtrooper cadets, disarmed Seebies, and Duros troopers.

Several of the prisoners nodded. The officer laughed.

“Reinforcements are on their way. You’ll all be killed.”

Finn raised his gun and fired. The bolt landed square into the officer’s forehead.

“Get into the network and disable their surveillance mechanisms,” he ordered.

“Sir,” one of the prisoners raised his hand, “Captain Rukko here was the second in command. Major Schwerm is somewhere else.”

“Finn to Cardinal. Seebie HQ is under control.”

“Good work. Bridge and Engineering are also ours.”

“We’ve been locked out, though,” Rose’s voice informed them.

“Find the chief engineer and interrogate him.”

“We don’t need to find him, but as for interrogation–”

“Understood. We need access to the engineering mainframe.”

“On it,” Rose said.

The Absolution‘s intercom came online. “Attention to all personnel aboard Absolution. This is Captain Cardinal. I have once more taken command of this vessel. The First Order leadership has betrayed the ideals it purports to espouse, and has lost any claim to our loyalty. From now on, this will be a free ship whose crew will be here by choice, and be free to choose our allies and our enemies. I intend to join the Resistance, but I will not force anyone to come along. If you wish to be dropped off on a neutral planet, that arrangement will be made. Cardinal out.”

“Take us out of the shipyard,” Cardinal ordered.

“The Lammo controllers are hailing us.”

“Ignore them.”

The intercom flared up again. “This is Major Yoli Schwerm of the First Order Security Bureau,” the woman’s voice came through. “Former Captain Cardinal has been convicted of treason and sentenced to death. Any member of the First Order has the authority to carry out that sentence.”

“In case you haven’t noticed, Major Schwerm, you’re not in a position to make threats.”

“I’ve alerted Fleet Command. We’ll have reinforcements. My loyal men will make it hell for you traitors to operate Absolution, and we’ll last long enough for help. Hyperdrive is offline. You won’t run before they get here.”

“She’s right, damn it,” Rose said. “I’m getting the hyperdrive online, but cold-start means at least a half hour.”

“Launch program VIXEN 5 on the mainframe console.”

“It’s just an input field,” Rose sounded confused.

“Code input. R-F-G-7-TH-N-Y-3-Q-C-I-0.”

“Alright… it’s a countdown. Fifteen minutes.”

“You hear that, Schwerm? That’s a countdown to deliberate reactor overload. And when the Absolution was brought into the shipyard, the escape pods were taken off. Oops.

"I will input the cancellation code when I have Schwerm on the bridge. I don’t care if she’s dead or alive. Cardinal out.”

The Absolution torn the bracers holding her in the shipyard and rose away from Viwen.

XXX​

“Please… don’t shoot.”

Rey stepped forward, lightsaber in hand. “We won’t if you won’t.”

It was nearly a company of Security Bureau troopers. The two in the lead were carrying a body. Finn looked them over carefully and ordered the squad they arrived with, along with two new ones who joined them, to flank them.

“This is Major Schwerm,” one of the leading troopers said.

“We knocked her out,” the other said helpfully.

With a glance over the previously captured Seebies, Finn got a confirmation. “Let’s go then,” he said. “MR-2986, you’re in charge here. Time’s running out.”

Cardinal was delighted when they arrived. Major Schwerm far less so, as she was restrained.

“Cardinal to Tico,” he said.

“There’s two minutes left!” Rose shouted.

“EXIT.”

“What?”

“E-X-I-T. EXIT. Input that.”

Beeps came through the comlink.

“What the hell?”

Schwerm recovered enough to spit in anger. “We don’t have a self-destruct mechanism with a countdown, you twerp!”

“We don’t?” the Seebies who carried her asked.

“We don’t?” Rose exclaimed on the other end of the comlink.

“We don’t?” both Rey and Vie demanded.

“We don’t,” Cardinal and Finn confirmed simultaneously.

“You knew?” Rose asked Finn.

“There’s no way Cardinal wouldn’t know, so I figured it was a bluff.”

“If such a system existed,” Cardinal said. “The first thing an enemy will try is slice the computer to get at it. You can overload the reactor, but it has to be done by tinkering with several control stations and any time of destruction will be only an estimate. Nothing like this down to the second control is possible without pre-planting detonators in critical systems. If your 'loyal men’ were engineering crew, this wouldn’t have worked, Major.”

“But I told them!”

“And they did not believe you. That says everything about your leadership. Take her to the brig. Raise shields. I believe her, at least on the subject of First Order reinforcements. How’s the hyperdrive, Tico?”

“Coming online. Another ten minutes.”

“Too late,” Captain Daari interrupted the conversation.

In the viewport, five Resurgent-class Star Destroyers emerged from hyperspace.

“I’m taking Challenger out.”

“Understood,” Cardinal said. “This is the captain,” he announced. “We are all traitors in the eyes of the First Order. There will be no mercy. Battlestations!”

“Five to one…” someone muttered.

“We don’t have to beat them. Just last long enough to jump. And change IFF parameters,” he ordered the officer at the station. “First Order, Hostile. Resistance and Duros, Friendly.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Another ship behind us! We’re being boxed in!”

“Don’t worry,” Daari informed them. “It’s the Enterprise.”

“Enemy launching fighters.”

“Enterprise to Absolution,” Nog signaled. “What’s your status.”

“Cardinal here,” the captain said. “We have the ship, and can fight her… not at peak efficiency.”

“Understood. Delta Quadrant, Nereid, Unbroken, deploy. Resistance fighters, stand by.”

“Standing by, Admiral,” the voice of Poe Dameron answered. May the Force be with us.“

 

Lol. Captain Cardinal reminds me of somebody, but I can't quite think who.

 

It's probably listed here: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/InsistentTerminology

And yes, mutiny is something you can only do on your own ship.

 

6​

“You’re gambling, Admiral,” Thanya Ferraro said. “The Defiants don’t have a hyperdrive installed. If we have to run–”

“All war is gambling,” Nog replied. “Are we ready?”

“Ferraro to Commander Doron,” she said. “Report.”

“Security teams standing by.”

“Ferraro to Lieutenant Orim. Report.”

“Scanners up and linked in.”

“Ready, sir.”

“Nog to fleet. Execute. Dameron, you are clear.”

Resistance fighters dropped out of the Enterprise‘s bays and started falling into formation.

“TIEs incoming!”

“Fire.”

The Delta Quadrant was a classic Starfleet design, upgraded for the modern era. It positioned itself directly dorsally from Enterprise. The Nereid and Unbroken, old Defiant-class vessels, took place to port and starboard, so the four ships formed a square. Then all four released bolts of energy towards the TIE Fighter swarm.

Capital ship beams, whether phaser or turbolaser, couldn’t be aimed well enough to hit starfighter-sized targets. But if they did hit, the small craft would almost certainly be destroyed. Pilots reacted sensibly, avoiding the beams. The four ships’ fields of fire herded the fighters into a relatively small region.

A console chirped. “In range.”

“Orim, go.”

“Energize.”

And then most of the fighters ahead ceased maneuvering and responding to the surroundings. Others, unprepared for the rapid change, had to dodge their comrades, and weren’t always succeeding.

“TIE pilots beamed aboard,” Orim announced.

“Commander Doron?”

“We have them. Alright, people,” he ordered. “No time for the usual, not with this many. Stun everyone, strip weapons and equipment, and put them in the detention area.”

“What did you do?” Poe Dameron exclaimed in astonishment.

“Took advantage of their bad design,” Nog said. “Attack the Star Destroyer further to our port.”

“Yes, sir. Their fighter cover is down. Form up behind Nereid. Accelerate to attack speed. Arm torpedoes.”

Enterprise, Absolution, and Challenger all focused fire on the same ship. Delta Quadrand and Unbroken, meanwhile, moved to disrupt such concentrated effort by the other four, firing torpedoes and phasers at sensor banks and shield projectors. The standard design meant knowing exactly where to aim from practice against Enterprise.

The torpedo volley from the Resistance finished off the enemy ship. Flames erupted all across her hull, engines gave the last flicker and went dark, and the hull began falling towards the planet.

“Regroup,” Nog ordered. “Target the–”

“Admiral, we’ve sustained damage!” Cardinal shouted. “If our shields were infinite, we could destroy them one by one, but they aren’t!”

“Then perhaps I could help.”

“New ship–sir, it’s a whole new fleet.”

“This is General Jade aboard RDS Covenant,” the same crisp female voice announced. “The Kindom of Duro is taking control of the Viwen system. Resistance will be considered an act of war.”

The First Order flotilla turned their cannons and fired. The Duros ships were less than a third their length and much thinner, but Jade had brought twenty-five of them. Most concentrated their fire on the closest Star Destroyer, but a group of eight peeled off and moved higher above the ecliptic, spreading out and positioning themselves in a ring, equidistant from each other.

“What are they doing?” someone asked.

“Not sure,” Nog said.

The axis of the ring was now aligned with the three still-unharmed First Order ships. Powerful green beams emerged from the bows of the Duros cruisers, forming a cone of light.

Then Thanya understood. “That’s how the Death Star worked!”

The beams met at a point, paused, and colluded in a single shaft of light along the axis, piercing all three ships. The first was cut in half, the second had its bridge sheared off. The last, faring the best of all, only lost about two hundred meters of the frontmost section. Fires erupted into space on all three. The least-damaged ship then vanished into hyperspace, leaving its prow floating free.

The Duros shut down their ring. “I didn’t even know that was possible,” Cardinal said over the comm.

The bridge door opened and admitted Leia Organa. “I want to speak to that Duros commander. Now.”

“Transmit,” Nog said. “This is Admiral Nog of the United Federation of Planets. Thank you for the assistance, General Jade.”

“How… how could you…,” Leia barely controlled her rage. “That–”

The Enterprise‘s bridge projected a blue-white hologram of a human woman about Leia’s age, hair in a tight bun and dressed in a Duros military uniform. “General Organa,” Jade said. “I expected to have this conversation.”

“What?”

“The Lammo Hegemony has been a disguised First Order protectorate for a long time,” she explained. “Every war we had, there was always a chance the disguise would fall off. Now it did, and the Kingdom is also at war with the First Order. That makes us allies. Anger between allies is counterproductive.”

“How could you use the Death Star technology?”

“The technology isn’t what made it evil. And what you saw today is the outcome of long debates on this very topic. The weapon is nowhere near as powerful, and there’s a reason we split the projectors among eight ships.”

“I don’t understand.”

“So that firing requires the agreement of eight independent crews, capable of ignoring the order and escaping with evidence,” she explained. “Lack of a planet-sized station behind us also limits the power capacity. It’s not a planet-killer. It’s a useful weapon with strengths and weaknesses, like any other.”

Leia reluctantly nodded, eyes still moist. “Building a true Death Star would be beyond the Kingdom’s economy, unnecessary for our military objectives, and against King Gelemod’s doctrine. It’s not us you need to worry about, Princess.”

Nog shifted the subject. “What about what you said about the system?”

“I meant it. Perhaps you haven’t heard the news yet? Six hours ago, Lammo ships attacked a convoy from Kashyyyk into the Kingdom. A fourth war with Lammo. There will be no fifth.”

Jade’s hologram turned, then froze. Motion resumed a few seconds later and it spoke off to the side. “Acknowledged. Challenger, dock with Covenant. Captain Daari, report for debriefing.”

She turned back to face the personnel on the Enterprise. “I am sending troops to seize the shipyard. No ground operation for now. Once we neutralize the Lammo fleet, we can bring in whole corps and take the planets one by one.”

“And the First Order?”

“For now, we’ll only fight them in Duros or Lammo space. You know them, though. There’ll be no coexistence the way there was with the Republic. Lammo is only fighting us, while the First Order has other enemies. We won’t be so unwise as to get into a two-front war.”

“It’s a good plan, General,” Leia said. “If you can carry out. The First Order has plans of its own.”

XXX​

“Rey! Rey! Wake up!”

She let her eyes drift open and looked around. Finn’s face was close by, looking at her with worry.

“Hey–?”

“’m tired.”

There had been the battle on the Absolution, and then several hours spent helping damage control. The sudden change in command and inoperation of many vital systems due to the cold start took their toll; the Absolution suffered far more damage from the short battle than the Enterprise or any of the tougher-built Duros cruisers. Rey fell asleep as soon as the Star Destroyer was back in the shipyard and Resistance repair crews got to work on it. Now she carefully rose as Finn helped her up.

“Something happen?”

“You’re wanted,” he grinned. “They’re being mysterious as to why, but Poe said they found something interesting in the command center.”

Rey looked around. “Everyone alright?”

He nodded. “We have Enterprise and a Duros fleet,” he said. “Cardinal refuses to shut down the hyperdrive. He and Jade had a spat over that.”

“Why?”

“The Duros really want the shipyard intact, which won’t happen if we blast out of here. Rose says we’ll be fully prepped in three days. Hope it’s enough time.”

“You’re joining Cardinal?”

“He’s making me the XO.”

“Congratulations,” Rey said. “What about Rose?”

Finn blushed. “She’s been running the ship’s engineering since we took over.”

Finn led her through the hallways of the shipyard deeper into its superstructure and finally stopped in front of the door flanked by two Duros soldiers. “General Jade wished to see Rey,” Finn said. “Let’ her know we’re here.”

One of the guards tapped a few keys on his comlink, and in a few moments, the door slid open. “Hi there,” Ruffel Daari said. “The General is waiting.”

General Jade looked Rey over carefully before extending her hand. “You’re the Jedi,” she finally said.

“In a way,” Rey said carefully.

Jade pointed to a half-meter long box sitting on the console. “We found this in the station commandant’s safe. It’s not the first time, either. We’ve found them in possession of high-ranking Lammo officials. That is a symbol of the Jedi Order.” She traced the pattern on the lid.

“Yes it is,” Rey agreed. “Or rather, it’s a variant.”

“Then here’s what I’m going to tell you: this box is impervious to any technical scan we know, and if we break it, it has a mechanism that destroys the contents. At least, that was the fate of previous items we captured. I was hoping a Jedi might have a way to open it safely. Someone went to a lot of protections for it. That alone speaks for its importance.”

Rey nodded. “I’ll try.”

“No,” a voice from behind said. “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”

XXX​

General Mara Jade was no stranger to unusual stuff. She’d been an unusual person for most of her life, first as a child of two professional performers living on a spaceliner, and then as a human officer in the Duros army. She liked it. Intelligence work required dealing with the unusual.

She was not prepared for a shimmering figure of a Jedi Master to appear out of nowhere and speak in a perfectly normal voice.

“Master Skywalker,” Rey said, turning to him.

Mara took time to look the man over. “You’re the Luke Skywalker?” she said skeptically.

Princess Ruffel, meanwhile, was staring at the two of them with her eyes wide in astonishment. “What are you talking to?” She seemed so astonished that she made her question in her native Duros, rather than in the Basic she was perfectly fluent in, breaching what was considered good behavior for a Duros noblewoman.

Now Rey looked confused. “You can’t see him?” She gestured at the image.

“There’s no one there,” Finn said.

“But you obviously can,” Rey nodded at Jade.

Mara nodded. “I don’t mind mysteries, but I don’t like having the fate of millions hinge on anyone solving them.”

“That’s the sort of galaxy we live in,” Luke said.

“I’ve never been one to accept what the galaxy threw at me,” Mara retorted.

“You must have some connection to the Force,” Rey declared. “Alright, for later,” she said, seeing Mara’s frown. She closed her eyes and extended her arm over the metal crate.

Clicks came from the inside, and then the lid slowly lifted up to open it. Mara looked inside. There was a glowing crystalline device pulsing with white-purple light. “It’s beautiful,” she said.

“And dark,” Luke and Rey announced simultaneously.

“I can feel it,” Rey said. “How’d you know?”

“There are references. Newer than the texts you took, and a good deal were purged by Sidious. What you have here is a hybrid Jedi-Sith holocron.”

Rey blinked. “Alright…” she said slowly. “How does that work?”

“It varies. This one has a Sith core embedded in a Jedi support matrix, rather than a full blend.”

“What’s it doing here?”

“At a guess? The disbalance pours out into the Force and influences people around it.”

“How?”

“Because the core is Sith, towards cruelty and domination. But filtered through the Jedi projection system–”

“That’s how it happens!” Mara exclaimed. “The prime mover!”

“The prime mover of what?”

“The social degradation of the Lammo Hegemony, as our friend Caruthers puts it.”

“She told you, too?” Princess Ruffel asked.

“Long ago. Empirical evidence said she was right, but the cause was a mystery. Until now.”

“Rey, you need to separate the components,” Luke said.

Rey steeled herself for another powerful vision. The moment she touched it, she found herself in a haze of sand and smoke, dings of battle and flashes of lightsabers. Long ago, can’t hurt, just a vision, she told herself. The holocron in front of her pulsed faster and brighter, but the Force-echo of the battle produced no details. Disbalance indeed. She had a feeling that things would be clearer if both components were either Jedi or Sith. Her head started aching.

She ignored the background and focused on the object in front of her, picking out places were red light became blue and giving them nudges via the Force. Seven nudges at seven points and a small crack opened. She gently twisted the device and let the gap widen, then winced at the pain when she took hold of the core. Centimeter by centimeter, painful jolts at each pull, she pulled it away from the embedding matrix. A final click of separation, and the vision vanished at the same time as the lights on the holocron itself went went out. She was back in the command center, covered in cold sweat, right hand aching from the pain and holding the red pyramidal crystal. The blue spheroid with an opening remained in her left.

“Is it safe?”

“Should be,” Luke said, “as long as they’re separate.”

“What about putting them together with their proper counterparts?” Mara suggested.

“Wait a minute,” Rey said as she looked over the Jedi portion of the disassembled holocron. “I’ve seen schematics for this.”

“Where?” Luke asked.

“Jakku. I scavenged a luxury yacht once, and it was in one of the droids’ memory modules.”

“The Imperialis. Palpatine’s personal vessel. I’ve been there too.”

“But just the schematics. No holocrons themselves.”

“No. Jedi or Sith, these were the most important of Sidious’s possessions. Either falling in stranger hands would be a risk. He kept them close.”

“So they’ve been blown up at Endor?” Mara suggested.

“It’s never complete,” Rey said. “There’s always large pieces of wreckage left. I’ll go there and see.”

“Wait!” Mara commanded. “This can’t be the only such device in the Hegemony. Or even the most important one. How do we open the others, if you’re the only Jedi around?”

“It doesn’t require a Jedi,” Luke said.

“Oh?”

“Affinity with the Force, yes. Jedi training–holocrons were used for Jedi training. Making their use conditional on being a Jedi is self-defeating.”

“You’re saying I could do it?”

“I do.” He opened his arms. “I can’t really sense other people in this state,” he admitted. “But that you and I can interact proves your connection. You might have been a Jedi under other circumstances.”

She snorted. “Considering what happened to your school, I’ll pass.”

“Just… be careful,” Rey advised. “The visions are never pleasant.”

 

7​

Rey emerged from hyperspace and instantly felt currents of darkness in the Force. This was the system where two Sith Lords died among thousands of others; it leaving a mark was quite expected. But there was another, fresher feeling on top of it.

“Kylo Ren,” Rey muttered to herself. She considered whether to reopen the mental link from a few months back or to try to keep herself hidden until they could speak in person. Deciding on the latter, she tightened her focus and guided the X-Wing further down to the forest moon.

“Scan it, Artoo,” she ordered the astromech. A few seconds later, text scrolled on her console.

“Probably for the same reason we are.”

Another scrolled message. “I am one of two people he even might listen to,” she said. “Be prepared to lock out the ship’s controls and keep them so.”

The next transmission took longer. “Yeah, I know. Alright let’s do the biggest one first.”

An island of metal rose from one of Endor’s oceans. The contour was well-recognized even by someone growing up as remotely from galactic affairs as Rey had been. It was a portion of the Death Star’s signature disk of a superlaser projector, only mildly worn down in the decades since it fell here.

“Less than a hundred kilometers from shore,” she noted. The closest region was a grass plain, very different from the tall forest covering the rest of the continent. “Oh,” Rey realized. When the giant shard crashed into the sea, the wave from the impact would have scoured the surroundings, and there had been no time for trees to reclaim the land.

“Well, well,” she smiled at Artoo’s next message. “I was right.”

She read more. “If it did, it did,” she dismissed. “Approach from the seaward side, just in case.” Sitting on the grass plain under open sky was a single-pilot craft, a variant of a TIE interceptor, but clearly made for someone elite. Blasting it was tempting… but even if it stranded Kylo Ren on Endor, that alone wasn’t going to win the war.

She read the next thing. “No, don’t land next to it,” she said. “I want you to stay on the shard.”

More text. “This thing doesn’t have magnetic clamps?”

Reply. “Well, use them.”

Artoo produced another question. “Kylo is here. If more of the First Order comes, I don’t want us to stand out on a scan.” She gestured in the direction of Kylo’s ship. “They won’t hesitate to strand us.”

They approached one of the shard’s peaks projecting through the clouds. The artificial island was basically a half-ring with a flooded lagoon, with metal peaks of various heights projecting from around the perimeter.

“Take us down, Artoo,” she said. The surface close to the sea was too overgrown to actually land, so while the X-Wing hovered, Rey opened the cockpit, unstrapped herself, pulled out a satchel of equipment from the emergency compartment, and leapt down.

“I’m good,” she reported. “Find a place to clamp onto where it’ll be hidden from sensors.”

A long whistle. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “The Force can be annoyingly vague.”

XXX​

“Can you modify her like the Enterprise?”

Rose gave Captain Cardinal a long stare. “Why? Want to flee the galaxy and all its problems?”

“Of course not. But you see the advantage it would give us.”

“First, I’d need the assistance from the Starfleet people. I don’t know how their engines work. And it’ll mean more time in the yard, which I’m guessing won’t go over well with General Jade.”

Cardinal smiled. “No, I suppose not. It’ll have to wait, then. How soon can we be underway?”

“Reactor is up, we’ve got fuel–”

“Lammo,” Cardinal sneered. “If this had been a First Order yard, Jade would be ruling over cinders and radiation.”

“Right,” Rose didn’t comment. Cardinal may have changed sides, but he still had the all-too familiar attitude of the First Order officers who’d slowly destroyed Hays Minor. Finn may have had fond memories from childhood, but he couldn’t impart them to her.

“Bridge to captain,” Finn’s voice came over the intercom. “There is a galaxywide transmission from the First Order, incoming on an open frequency. Do we want to hear it?”

“I do,” Cardinal said at the same moment that Rose announced, “I don’t.”

They looked at each other. “Whether you want or not, Lieutenant Commander, we all need to.”

Unfortunately, that was true. “Pipe it across the ship, and let the Duros and Resistance know about it,” he said.“

"Yes, sir.” A moment later, a hologram projection of a starfield materialized in the engineering bay. Imperial-era music blared, and then the stars moved, imitating a flight for the viewer. A wedge-shaped ship floated into view.

“Another one?” Rose snarled, looking at the sister-ship of the perished Supremacy.

The motion zoomed forward towards the ship, and then through the hull inside, over rows of stormtroopers in formation standing before a stage with a viewport behind. On the stage, General Hux and assorted officers in crisp black uniforms met the holocam with merciless gazes.

Then everything was replaced by a twice-lifesize hologram of Hux. He took one step forward and opened his mouth.

“Citizens of the Galaxy, the First Order has two gifts for you today!”

“Gifts,” Rose drawled, unable to turn her eyes away and horrified at what she was about to see.

XXX​

Leia and Poe had been planning the Resistance’s next moves aboard Enterprise when Captain Ferraro let them know about Hux’s broadcast. Equally curious and fearful, they let the holographic image appear in the room with them and sat in silence.

“The first gift,” Hux announced, “is justice!”

The holographic transmission changed from Hux’s form to a glass box floating in space. The box is barely large enough to hold one human body.

“Mon,” Leia whispered.

“For the crime of perpetuating chaos in the galaxy, the First Order sentences former Chancellor of the New Republic Mon Mothma to death!”

A green turbolaser beam pierced the hologram and turned the whole image to white flame. When the light faded there was nothing left.

Leia closed her eyes and held back tears as the pain in the Force slammed into her.

“Welcome to the new era, citizens of the galaxy! An era of stability, peace, purpose and glory! An era of the First Order!”

The intership comm chirped. “Not a very enticing advertisement,” Nog adjucated.

“I don’t like this,” Poe said. “If that was the biggest thing they had, it would be second ‘gift’, not the first.”

XXX​

All traces of Mon Mothma vanished, and Hux’s face reappeared. He was smiling gleefuly.

“The second gift,” he continued, “is safety! Through the First Order’s technological might, we rule more than planets; we rule the space between them!” He extended his hand to the side, and another hand placed a small white device into his palm. Hux looked at it, as if thinking, and then lifted his head again.

“This is the Duro system, where a criminal fleeing Imperial justice claims to be the King! But it is time he paid for his many crimes. Gelemod Daar, I am taking your so-called Kingdom away from you!” He waved the device.

Rose and Cardinal met each others’ eyes in confusion. “It’s not another starkiller, is it?”

Cardinal shook his head. “I’d know if they were building one.”

“The days of any scumbag fleeing law away from the system of their crimes are over!” Hux shouted. “As of now, hyperspace travel in the galaxy is a privilege granted by the First Order!” He thumbed the button.

The hologram zoomed out away from the supremacy, and then was peppered with rapid flashes of explosions. “What is happening?”

“No idea.”

“The Duro system is now cut off from the galaxy! It will be thus with any who defy the First Order!”

The hologram once again showed the flagship, but this time there were several Duros cruisers in the frame. They opened fire, but the enormous wedge didn’t even reply with its own turbolasers. Instead, it turned a couple degrees and vanished into hyperspace.

Moments later, so did the Duros ships.

“So, it was all hogswash?” Rose asked.

“You can’t just lie like that, with something so easy to prove wrong,” Cardinal countered.

As if on cue, the cruisers reappeared. Then several blue bolts headed straight for them, and the hologram vanished.

“Transmission cut off,” Finn announced from the bridge. Rose nodded. Whatever was going on, the Duros didn’t want the First Order to broadcast it to everyone.

“General Jade is hailing us. She wants a command meeting.”

“Tell her I’ll be there,” Cardinal said. He tapped the ship’s intercom. “Bay two, ready my shuttle.” He turned to Rose. “Can you and Commander Finn stock the ship up on spare parts? Share with the Resistance and the Duros, but if we have to get out of here, I don’t want anything useful in the yard.”

Rose nodded. “If we can get out of here.” She gestured at where the hologram had been. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

XXX​

Rey climbed through a broken viewport and looked around. The uneasy feeling from the Force was stronger. She was in a long corridor with hardly any details visible in the trickle of light coming in. She took several steps, contemplating whether to ignite the lightsaber.

Then she shut her eyes under a luminous flood.

The place had been heavily decorated in red and black, though much of it had been worn down. The lights came from dozens of hovering droids, with recognizable First Order markings. At the end of the corridor stood a large table with a swivel chair turned away from her. As she approached, the chair turned, revealing Kylo Ren.

“You have something of mine, child,” the Supreme Leader declared and before Rey realized, the combined holocron floated out of her pocket. That’s when Rey noticed a curious device sitting on the table in front of Ren. It looked somewhat similar to the outside of the holocron, though it was black rather than blue. It was symmetrical, except that there was a red tetrahedron embedded in a slot on the device’s right. The left slot was empty.

Ren raised his hand and fired a blast of lightning at the holocron Rey brought. She flinched as the outer covering broke, revealing another red tetrahedron. The Sith core.

She understood. “Ben,” she called out.

Kylo laughed. “Ben Solo was weak,” he said.

Confused, Rey stared. “I don’t understand.”

“That is not necessary.” Rey instinctively pulled the holocron core back into her hand.

Ren’s face turned angry. “Give it to me.”

“Why?”

Instead of answering, he raised his hand again and launched an electric stream at her. Rey dropped, rolled away, and came up, lightsaber at the ready.

“Ben!” she yelled again. Stretching in the Force, she tried to open up the mental bond they had shared. Nothing happened. Ben was far away, and surrounded by the dark side, both his own… and someone else’s.

“Who. Are. You?” she demanded.

She got another blast of lightning in return, which hit her blade and nearly caused her to drop the lightsaber. Clenching on, she pushed back, then got out of the way from the next round.

Fury in his eyes, Ren leapt out of the chair and spun towards her, red lightsaber igniting towards her. The blades clashed and she stumbled backwards under the impact.

“Give! Me! The! Holocron!” Ren snarled. “It! Doesn’t! Belong! To! You!”

She lifted her hand and pushed at Ren with the Force, then swung the lightsaber, forcing him to parry. “Why? Why do you need it?”

Three of the droids that were lighting the room suddenly rushed at her from different sides, Rey dodged one, plunged her lightsaber into the other, but the third impacted her back. She had to leap out of the way to avoid being impaled on Ren’s blade, and in mid-leap, Kylo reached out, grabbed her pants’ leg, and yanked with all his strength. Fabric tore, Rey clumsily crashed to the floor, and Ren quickly pilfered through the pocket on the ripped-away garment to extract what he wanted.

He turned and threw one more bolt of lightning over his back, making Rey avoid it but otherwise acting like it didn’t matter. He strode up to the desk and plugged the crystal in.

Two beams sprung from the device and hit both him and Rey simultaneously. Rey blinked, and had to concentrate on seeing more, as a feeling of dizziness came over her. Each step was harder and harder than the previous one.

A third beam projected from the device, directly into the chair, and a figure started materializing in it. It was as transparent as a comm hologram, but Rey knew that it was quite real. The dark side of the Force poured out of it.

Ren was as mesmerized as her at the appearing figure. As it became more opaque, features set in that caused both of them to blink. Lifting up the eyelids was a chore, but Rey had to do it, because it was unbelievable. A second look left no doubts whatsoever, though.

Even as a Jakku scaveger, Rey would have recognized the figure. She’d seen more since then, in the images from the Republic era that some Resistance members collected, and heard even more from the ghost of Master Skywalker as she immersed herself in the Jedi texts. The identity of the person now appearing in front of them was not in doubt.

Sheev Palpatine. Emperor of the Galactic Empire. Sith Lord Darth Sidious.

The embodiment of evil let out a cackling laugh.

 

8​

“Thank you for coming,” General Jade said to the gathered coalition leaders. Admiral Nog and Captain Ferraro of Starfleet, General Leia and Commander Dameron from the Resistance, and Captain Cardinal of the Absolution were in person in the briefing room aboard the Covenant. General Sabine Wren of Mandalore sat as a hologram next to Leia. Jade knew the Resistance leader had made contact with others, but things were too urgent to wait.

“I take it you all saw the speech from Hux,” she began. “The good news is… he exaggerated when he declared Duro cut off. Comms work just fine. It’s travel that’s the problem, and whether it means he took the Kingdom away from King Gelemod remains to be seen. We are not the sort of realm that sucks everything into the capital. That includes military power. Keeping First Fleet out of the campaign against Lammo is a setback, but not a crippling blow.”

“But what stops the from doing it to your other systems?” Leia asked.

“Economics,” Nog replied. “If they could have covered the whole galaxy, they would have.”

“On the other hand,” Jade continued, “it’s not something to be shrugged off. Duro has supply stockpiles and the King has already instituted rationing, but if trade with other systems isn’t restored, most of the population will starve. There’s just not enough agriculture on Duro to support everyone who lives there.”

Cardinal growled. “How long?”

“Five months, give or take,” Jade said.

“What do we know about how they’re doing it?” Ferraro asked. “We’re the only ones who have dedicated science teams at the ready. Let’s start with what we know.”

“So far, not much,” Jade answered and raised a datacard. “I got this report from the commander of the squadron that moved to engage the Dominion.”

“Dominion?” Poe asked.

“The new First Order flagship now that Supremacy is gone,” Cardinal explained.

“It reads like fantasy,” Jade commented. “According to them, they did jump into hyperspace, but once in there, they weren’t moving through it. We saw it on the hologram, how the ships popped out exactly where they vanished. Well, not exactly,” she clarified. “According to this report, the realspace speed was about five meters per second.”

“That’s a slow down of sixteen orders of magnitude! What could do that?” Sabine demanded.

“I have no idea. Unfortunately, the First Order does.”

“That’s a good thing,” Ferraro said.

Leia, Mara, Poe, Sabine, and Cardinal stared at the Starfleet officer. “Explain,” Sabine said carefully.

“The First Order fleet left,” Ferraro said. “So they control it.”

“Of course they do. What could be the alternative?”

“That they discovered some natural phenomenon that neither they nor anybody else understands, and just make use of it. But ‘First Order and everybody else’ is not a natural distinction. And if they know how it works, so can we, either by reproducing the science, or by stealing it.”

“Espionage in the First Order is difficult,” Jade said. “And it’s better if the agents at least have a little idea of what to look for.”

“Then let’s try to find it,” Nog said. “I will send the Delta Quadrant to the Duro system to study the phenomenon on site.”

Jade frowned. “If you fail, you’ll be stranded too.”

“Not necessarily. Our ships have warp drives, which use a different physical principle. It’s slower, but it’ll let us reach at least other Duros worlds.”

“That’s… an assumption,” Jade said.

“If we fail,” Leia said, “we lose the war. The galaxy just isn’t prepared; hyperspace has always been free. No one has ever heard of something like this happening ever. I even asked Maz Kanata.”

“So what are you saying?”

“Duro won’t starve, General. It will surrender, along with the rest of the galaxy. And waiting for the First Order to collapse from within can be a long, long time.”

“I don’t know,” Nog mused. “They do seem rather short-sighted.”

Ferraro nodded. “As I said, ‘First Order versus everyone else’ isn’t a natural distinction.” She smiled. “So we should find out how they do it, and then make it work in reverse.”

“Now that will be a change,” Poe said with excitement.

Nog’s comm chirped. “May I?”

“Go ahead,” Jade said.

He tapped. “Admiral Nog here.”

“We’ve hit a mine, sir. Lost the port nacelle, and had to take the warp core offline.”

“Can you make it to to the yard for repairs?”

“Yes, but we’re not leaving the system, by either warp or hyperdrive.”

“Understood.” He turned to the meeting. “That was the Delta Quadrant. This isn’t good.”

“Send us,” Cardinal volunteered. “General Jade will be finally happy to have us out of her shipyard.”

“But you don’t have a warp drive.”

“You’ve got smaller ships with them, right?” Jade asked

“Of course. Shuttles and Defiants.”

“Send the Absolution with a couple aboard. And let us have one to copy if it works. We’ll need that anyway if that’s the only solution; the ships you have here aren’t enough.”

Nog and Ferraro exchanged glances. “No, the Prime Directive doesn’t apply,” he said, and tapped his combadge again. “Nog to Captain T'Viradi.”

“T'Viradi here.”

“Transfer your science department and shuttles to Absolution. Instruct Nereid and Sydney to join them, then begin repairs.”

“Understood, sir.”

“Can I have some X-Wings?” Cardinal asked.

Leia and Poe raised eyebrows. “Why?”

“To conduct the experiments on a non-First Order hyperdrive.”

“Fighters, yes. Pilots, no. Not risking getting stuck in the Duro system.”

“That’s alright. We don’t need them for fancy flying. As for getting stuck… that’s why we should use Absolution.”

“Surely the First Order databases have been updated to exclude your ship by now,” Jade said.

“Probably,” Cardinal agreed. “Which is why I’m going to change our transponder signal.”

“You’ve got a copy of another Star Destroyer?”

“Yeah, that’s what Vi and I were doing when we learned about Absolution. Stealing the readouts from Tarkin’s Legacy.”

XXX​

Rey glared at the Emperor. “You were behind it all,” she said.

“Anger, young Jedi. Excellent. Makes it quicker.”

“Makes what quicker?”

“The final eradication of all memory of the Jedi from the galaxy.”

“That is not possible.”

“You are in my power, as is the last Skywalker. All you do is quicken my return.”

Rey didn’t understand, but she saw Palpatine’s figure grow more solid, the yellow eyes brighter by the second. Her own movements, by contrast, were becoming more and more sluggish.

“Ben! He’s stealing our life!”

Sidious grinned. “He is too steeped in the dark side, and you have foolishly linked your mind to his. Already you are too weak to resist.”

She raised her lightsaber, painfully slowly. Palpatine laughed again.

He was right. Rey had no chance to strike down the Sith Lord. She could do something unexpected… would the ressurrection, or whatever it was, stop if she killed Ben? Or herself? Or… both at once?

Even if it would, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. That was not how Jedi operated.

And look at what the Jedi have been brought down to.

I do not choose the Light to win some cosmic game, a voice reverberated through her. I choose it because it is the Light.

She tried to connect to the Force, pushing against the overwhelming darkness in Sidious and Kylo. She couldn’t overpower them, she knew instantly. And then, recalling moments of intense connection to the Force, she got a fit of inspiration. Ignoring Sidious entirely, she focused on her lightsaber and lifted it into the air between herself and Ben, then opened her mind connection with him to send a simple direction.

Kylo Ren pulled off his glove and reached out with the bare hand. Rey mirrored him and their fingers intertwined over the lightsaber. Together, their thumbs pressed the switch.

Snap-hiss.

The blue blade vaulted up, ready to cut.

Ben’s eyes flicked and met hers. They moved to strike Sidious down.

And were engulfed in whiteness.

XXX​

Lieutenant Paige Tico, science officer of the USS Delta Quadrant, temporarily assigned to the captured First Order Star Destroyer Absolution to figure out the hyperspace blocker problem, nervously tapped on the blast door. “Enter,” the reply came.

Paige steeled herself. This had to work. For everyone’s sake. She entered the Absolution‘s engineering bay.

“Congratulations on the promotion,” she said. “Chief engineer.”

Rose Tico stepped out from behind a panel. “I never thought I’d worry about too much damage to one of these things,” she tapped a bulkhead. She made a gulp. “Sorry.”

“Don’t. I know what I look like to you.”

“I miss her,” Rose admitted. “And now, I wonder what you two would make of each other.”

“Play twin pranks?” Paige suggested.

Rose laughed, then looked her over critically. “Probably wouldn’t work. Your Federation’s translators…”

“Something wrong with them?”

“Not quite… but with them, I hear you speak like a Coruscanti news anchor. I doubt my Haysean accent is carried over either.”

“Translator engineering is not my specialty, so I couldn’t say if that can be done,” Paige said. “And now is not the time. I will be sending ships through the blockers and bringing them back for study. And we need strict isolation, to avoid the Absolution being caught in it.”

Rose considered. “More than the standard force fields?”

“The Duros cruisers had them, according to General Jade, and they were still lost.”

“How do you think it works?”

“I’m a scientist, Rose. I don’t formulate theories before I have facts.”

“Sorry.”

“The most important part, something Mom grasped immediately–”

Rose sighed again. Paige took her hands in hers and met her eyes. “I’ve had more luck than your sister,” she said. “But not in all things. You two actually knew our father, and your mother had more time with him than mine.”

Rose nodded. “Do you know how confusing that sounds? Do you have to deal with things like this all the time?”

“The Tom Riker effect is not that common,” Paige said. “Precision does help. I’m not used to calling my mom 'Captain Ferraro’ outside formal settings.”

“So what was her insight?” Rose asked.

“That it permits First Order ships through, and no others. That rules out chemical contaminants, non-engineered lifeforms, and natural astrophysical phenomena. Don’t worry. I’ve got a whole suite of experiments lined up. This is not a Starfleet ship,” she said. “If it were, though, it would be your responsibility, as chief engineer, to warn of potential danger to either the vessel or the crew. I can’t do that; I don’t know how a Star Destroyer works.”

Rose breathed out. “Everyone always told me that I can’t just follow Pae-Pae’s lead.”

“Well, I’m not her, am I? So feel free to object. Though I’d rather you use words rather than a shock prod.”

Rose blushed. “Finn told you about that?”

Paige nodded. “Hey, I understand. Cardinal told us to put all vehicles destined for experimentation to Bay Four. Let’s make sure that any problems stay there. As someone wrote a long time ago… we’re going to science the **** out of this.”

XXX​

The Absolution emerged from hyperspace near one of the cold gas giants of the Duro system. Cardinal made a gesture and a tactical hologram appeared on the bridge.

“Eight-cruiser Duros squadron heading our way, Captain.”

“Open channel.”

“Tarkin’s Legacy, you are not permitted in Duros space. Surrender or be destroyed.”

“Now or never,” Finn encouraged.

Cardinal nodded. “Duros squadron, we are not, repeat, not, Tarkin’s Legacy. This is the Resistance Star Destroyer Absolution.”

There was some hesitation. “You read as Tarkin’s Legacy to us.”

“A necessity to neutralize First Order hyperspace blockers. We are here by permission of General Jade, with a mandate to study the blocker and develop a workaround.”

“Lower shields and maintain position. Do not approach the planet.”

“Acknowledged,” Cardinal said. “Lieutenant Commander Tico?”

“Yes?” Rose’s voice came over the intercom.

“Can we jump?”

“That’s the question, isn’t it?”

“Get ready to,” he ordered. “We can’t fire on them.”

“Understood.”

A new voice came over the channel. “Tarkin–Absolution, transmit authorization code from General Jade for verification.”

Finn nodded. “Transmission commencing.”

They waited. The Duros cruisers surrounded Absolution and raised shields. A few minutes later, the voice returned. “Prepare for holocomm.”

A Duros general appeared moments later, and even as a figure of bluish light, his eyes were brimming with anger. Moments later, a second hologram lit up the bridge, a disheveled figure of General Jade.

“What the hell is going on?” the Duros demanded.

“Sir, I am in the middle of a battle. The permission is genuine. Jade out.” And the woman disappeared.

“This is General Noripel Daar,” the Duros pronounced. “We do not need the humans’ help.”

“Daar?” Finn whispered. “As in–”

The whisper apparently wasn’t quite enough. “The King is my brother, not that it’s relevant. He’s always been soft on humans. You’ll be dealing with me. What are you here for?”

Cardinal rose. “We have a common enemy in the First Order. So far, this system is the only one where hyperspace blockers have been deployed. We are here to study them, as we said.”

“Is that so?”

“We have an… ally in possession of an alternate propulsion system. We will test to see if it is affected. If not, we are authorized to pass along working samples, full technical documentation, and assistance of experts to the Kingdom of Duros, without expectation of compensation.”

The general appeared to stifle. “I do not trust in the generosity of humans.”

“According to General Jade, if trade isn’t restored, this system will starve in six months.”

“Jade has a big mouth.”

“Will we be allowed to proceed with experiments on hyperspace blockers?”

“Unfortunately, by orders of the King,” General Daar announced. “Keep at least one light-hour from the sun. Cross that line, we open fire. I expect a progress report every twenty-four hours. Daar out.”

His hologram winked out before Cardinal had a chance to acknowledge. He tapped the intercom.

“Lieutenant Tico, are you alright with the restrictions?”

“For now. If this works, we’ll need permission to send warp technology and documentation to Duro. The light-hour is closer than the initial confrontation took place, and those ships were taken. In fact, from the footage, I think those three cruisers were among those that confronted us.”

“Then go ahead and begin.” He closed the comm. “Contact the Covenant. I want to speak with Jade, but if she’s too busy, it can wait.”

However, in a few minutes, the redheaded woman’s image was back on their bridge. She smiled. “Victory?” Cardinal asked.

“I exaggerated the urgency when I spoke to General Daar,” she said. “The victory was in the bag.” Her expression changed to frustration. “Hooray. Another system retaken from Lammo,” she grumbled. “Hundreds of asteroids sent into chaotic orbits, debris from ships will be a navigational hazard for years, and without ground troops from Duro, the only way we could stop a planetary genocide is to strike the perpetrators from orbit, which prompted countermassacres.”

“How’d you survive under General Daar?”

“Easier than you did, in the First Order.”

“How come you’re out there? Our info says you’re the Kingdom’s head of military intelligence.”

“In the First Galactic Army, we had to be versatile. And with the blockade, I’m the senior general outside the Duro system, so on the spot coordination between deployed commands falls to me. That pisses off Daar, by the way.”

“Is he going to cause trouble?”

“No. No matter how much he hates humans, he won’t disobey the King. But let me guess: he offered no information on what we found from the cruisers that attempted to jump through the blockade.”

“Not a word.”

Jade sighed. “Very well. You are not exactly safe from it yourself. We tried using captured First Order transponders to circumvent it, like you. The problem is what happens when the same transponder is used on multiple ships. Then they both get blocked.”

“I’ll take that under advisement, in case the real Tarkin’s Legacy shows up.”

“Then I won’t bother you anymore. I will have my staff from back at HQ send over the data gathered to Lieutenant Tico. Report when there’s progress. Jade out.”

“I don’t like this,” Finn said.

“Why?”

“It’s been too quiet. The Duros are conquering their ally, and the First Order does nothing. What’s their next move?”

 

9​

Rey stood in a well-lit hangar, in front of a large armed crowd. Ben stood next to her, equally confused. “Impossible,” he said.

“What?”

“This looks like–”

The enormous door in front of them opened, and revealed Palpatine, black robed. He took a long lightsaber handle off his belt and looked at it curiously.

“Naboo,” he and Ben said simultaneously and looked at each other.

“We’ll take the long way,” a woman spoke behind them.

“What is going on?” Ben asked Rey, but then Palpatine ignited the lightsaber. It had blades on both ends, and he charged at them.

Rey barely had time to activate hers, which brought another moment of confusion, as it was shaped differently and was green. Then the blades clashed.

“Help!” she shouted to Ben.

And almost to her surprise, he lit his own blue blade and joined in.

“What trickery did you commit, Jedi?” Sidious demanded as he parried their strikes, seemingly without effort. “My apprentice, Darth Maul, fought here many years ago.”

“And what happened to him?” She dodged a force-enhanced kick and leapt over the Sith Lord, while Ben produced a flurry of rapid strikes, inducing him into retreat.

“He suffered defeat, unfortunately. But then, so did the Jedi in whose place you now stand.”

“Qui-Gon Jinn,” Ben informed her. “I studied enough history, master,” he snarled at Palpatine. “That would make me Obi-Wan Kenobi.” He then laughed.

That was so unexpected that even Palpatine looked surprised. Rey didn’t understand either, but took the opportunity to attack. They were now in a tall room full of lit walkways and glowing pillars, and had to move carefully to avoid falling.

Sidious blocked her attack, but late enough for Rey to keep striking. Ben moved to join in, and his next blow was powerful enough to knock the Sith Lord onto his back. They moved in for the kill, but Palpatine raised his hand and unleashed lightning. Ben flew upwards several meters, while Rey caught the bolt on her blade and despite pouring all her will and strength, felt herself slide back to the walkways edge.

Ben hurled his lightsaber, accelerating its spin with the Force, straight towards Palpatine. The dark lord aimed one hand away from it while continuing to pour electricity out of the other at Rey. Under reduced pressure, she stopped herself, took several rapid gasps of air, and dropped down to slide towards him, green blade ready. Ben was now running up, having summoned the saber-staff away from Sidious under the distraction. But Palpatine stopped the lightning and halted the blue lightsaber’s spin, pulling it into him. He blocked Rey’s strike and with leverage, hurled Rey back, forcing her to shut down her blade and roll to nearly drop off the ledge. The three fighters stood up, blades raised.

“Rey!” Ben shouted, and shut down his double-bladed weapon. Then he threw it past Palpatine at her. Instantly, she understood, and did the same with her weapon.

“Games, Jedi?” Sidious snarled.

Rey gripped the weapon and activated both blades. “Experience,” she answered, and charged.

Rey had fought on Jakku with a staff for years. Ben trained with as single-bladed lightsaber for half his life. They now were each armed with the weapon most suitable to their skills. Palpatine fired lightning at both of them, but with wasn’t enough. He could block them, but not without allowing either Rey or Ben to get in closer or taking a step backwards.

Rey locked a blade with the Sith Lord’s. Taking the opportunity, Ben extended his left hand and summoned the lightsaber from his right into it, aiming to put it through Palpatine’s head. But Sidious was too quick; he shut off his own blade, putting Rey off balance, and reignited it as he raised, slicing Ben’s arm clean off between shoulder and elbow.

With his other arm, Ben punched him in the face, putting in so much strength, Force and physical, into the blow, that it sent Palpatine flying back, off the walkway and into the void below. Then he collapsed from the pain and clutched his stump.

Rey rushed to help him, but there was a blinding flash from underneath, and they were all once more engulfed in a white void.

XXX​

“Science Officer’s Log, Stardate 78231.4,” Paige dictated. “We’ve concluded field experiments in the Duro system and determined that the hyperspace blockers deployed by the First Order do not affect standard Federation warp drives. However, hyperspace travel by non-First Order vessels is affected even in combination with warp travel. Should the Enterprisetry to enter hyperspace in an affected area, we will be unable to return to our home galaxy.”

“And the First Order could invade you,” Rose said.

“They’ll have to get the warp drive specs,” Paige replied. “I know, I know. Now that we passed them on the the Duros, it won’t take long. We need to win this war before they can mass an invasion force.”

“Warp is much slower. I don’t know how things could work if takes decades to travel from Core to Rim.”

Paige sighed. “I know. The Kingdom of Duros is small enough and self-sufficient, which is a relief. But everyone agrees with General Leia on this. We can’t afford to lose. There are always disparities between guerrillas and occupiers in many things, including travel speed, but not on this scale.”

“Is there no way to build in cleansers?”

“I just don’t see one.” They’ve discovered that hyperspace blockers were caused by nanotech bots that had filled the Duros system. The bots could self-replicate, and would spread until the total density was within parameters. They could be only removed via transporter from a space completely closed off by solid metal or force fields. During the experiments, Paige and her team had named the procedure ‘cleansing’. Once the ship was cleansed, its hyperdrive worked normally… until the next time it tried to jump in space filled with the bots. Then it would be infected again.

The Duros’ factories had gone into overdrive after Paige sent them the prototype and schematics, and they were rapidly installing warp drives on all the warships in the system. But though the usage of warp would ameliorate the problem, at the very least preventing starvation of the Duros capital, it was a poor workaround in all respects, and everyone recognized it. They found no real solutions: cleansing was a long, energy-intensive procedure that couldn’t be done on an operating drive, and attempts at local-level hacking of the bots to reverse their recognition pattern failed.

“You know, Finn and I have been on the First Order flagship before.”

“What are you saying?” Paige looked at Rose in curiosity.

“Infiltration is possible,” she said. “And that’s without your teleporter. Though I don’t know how anyone risks it given what can happen.” She pointed at her.

“No such thing as absolute safety. And in case you haven’t noticed, we’re in a war. The transporter has limits, though. Can’t beam through shields.”

Rose nodded. “But it’s doable. And if we are to reverse it–I think we’ll have to. Could you do it? If you had the control panel?”

Paige nodded. “Old rule: physical access to hardware negates all software protections. There is a major danger, though.”

“Oh?”

“I’ve sent this in a separate report to Admiral Nog. I don’t want this widespread.”

“What?”

“We are acting under the assumption that there is only one control center for the bots.”

“Why?”

“Redundancy distributes power. First Order won’t want one of their admirals to block out an area for himself. So it’ll all be centrally controlled.”

“And well-protected.”

“True. But in case the protection fails, there’ll then be no way to alter the bots.”

“What’ll that mean?”

“They’ll stop all ships not recognized as First Order. And that will include any new First Order ships.”

“That’s… an improvement?”

“First Order transponders becoming the most valuable thing in the galaxy? Maybe. But regarding what we’re talking about: it’s what will happen if I make a mistake cracking that computer core and destroy it.”

Rose squeezed her shoulder. “You can do it.”

“I can’t be the one to make this decision. Not with everything at stake. And even if we succeed… wow.”

“Wow? Not the word I expected.”

“Mom said Admiral Nog called the First Order shortsighted. He was understating.”

“How so?”

“Think about it, Rose. The possibility of this blockage has been publicly proclaimed. Others will discover the same things we did. Others will want to cut someone off from the wider galaxy and benefit for granting access. A government with their enemies. A business with their customers. A despot with their subjects. And that will be so whether we win or lose.” She gave a grim smile. “Well, if we lose, we’ll be dead, and the First Order will be the ones dealing with the problem.”

“What can we do?”

“Like I said, a First Order victory won’t solve the problem, so there’s no reason to give up the fight. And then we’ll need to neutralize the bots. Permanently. We’re here to destroy prisons, not break them up into a patchwork of rival ones.”

XXX​

Rey stood in a spacious but poorly lit office, quite similar to the one they’d been in before she forced Ben to grip Luke’s old saber. Wind blew over her from the wide window just broken open, with the chunks of shattered transparisteel still crunching under her boots. Palpatine stood before her, red lightsaber in hand. She was wearing brown Jedi robes and gripping an intricate gold lightsaber hilt with a purple blade extending from the emitter.

“I won here before, girl!” he snarled. The Sith Lord’s blows came fast, and Rey had to leap out of his way a few times. Ben ran into the office and stopped in his tracks.

“You fell!” he shouted at Palpatine.

“And you lost your arm!” the Sith Lord snapped. Ben looked at his left arm, which appeared whole.

“It hurt,” he announced, and quickly moved to help Rey. They blocked Sidious’s next strike together. Rey noted his lightsaber was the same one she’d been using for the past year.

“Uh-oh.”

“This is when it happened. This is where Vader was born.”

“You are not your grandfather, Ben!” Rey shouted. Palpatine unleashed another fountain of lightning, and she had to yell over crackle and blade clashes. “The Dark Side brought neither him nor you anything but misery!”

“What do you know of the Dark Side?” Sidious demanded. A two-meter golden statue moved away from the wall and flew towards them. Rey and Ben had to leap apart to avoid getting crushed.

“What I said! Have you ever been happy, Sheev?”

“I am now! You are filled with anger, girl!”

“You aren’t even real!” she retorted. “You’ve been dead for thirty years, killed by the apprentice you created here!”

“Not for long!”

Sidious’s used the Force to rip a portion of the office’s carpet from the floor, wrinkle it, and slide it across, tripping Ben into a fall. He unleashed another attack on Rey, forcing her to retreat. Understanding the plan, Rey once again leapt over him before she could be pinned to the wall. But Palpatine ducked while she was in mid-flight, and hit her from below with a full barrage of lightning, driving her into shock and pinning her to the ceiling. Then he dropped her onto his waiting lightsaber blade.

Ben had recovered and attacked him, but wasn’t fast enough to knock him out of the way completely. Agony torn through Rey as the red blade pierced her thigh. Her leg useless, she crawled a short distance and leaned against a small stool, gasping in pain and watching Palpatine move against Ben.

He wasn’t doing well, despite being physically much stronger than Sidious. Rey looked around for her lightsaber, but didn’t see it. Then her eyes fell on another golden statue, a copy of the one Palpatine tried to ram them with. She suppressed the pain in the right leg, raised her arms and focused on it with the Force.

The statue came off its moorings with a loud crack that distracted both Ben and Sidious. Rey kept it floating and tried to spin it with the Force, but Sidious raised one arm to halt. Ben came to her assistance and they rotated it, first slowly, then faster and faster before hurling it into the Sith Lord. Palpatine ducked and sliced it in half with the lightsaber, but Ben and Rey anticipated that. Each one took control of one piece, and when Sidious rose up and prepared to unleash more lightning on the two of them, two multi-ton chunks of metal smashed together onto him.

And before any of them could react, Rey was once again bathed in featureless white light.

XXX​

“Lieutenant Pava?” Caruthers stepped onto the bridge to evaluate the Challenger‘s new copilot. “Are you alright?”

“What are they doing there?”

“Excuse me?”

“Oh. Sorry, ma'am. Can I do something?”

“What is who doing where?”

“Sorry. I was monitoring the homing beacon Moradi and Cardinal had placed on Tarkin’s Legacy when they stole their codes. Thought it would be a good idea, since the report we got that there’d be trouble with the hyperspace blockers if both ships were in the same system.”

“And?”

“Here, Colonel. They’ve been moving a lot, with neither rhyme or reason.”

She brought up a galactic map with several lit dots. “This is where they’ve been over the past two weeks.”

“Interesting,” a new voice said from behind.

“Captain,” Caruthers acknowledged.

“How long did they remain in each system?” Ruffel Daari asked.

“A few hours, a day once. These are not major systems. Unpopulated or low-tech, mostly, but that’s not enough time to secure even a world like this. Assuming she’s jumping alone.”

“Is there a reason to make that assumption, Lieutenant Pava.”

The Resistance pilot nodded. “If she’s part of a fleet that leaves substantial garrisons, why not dispatch the appropriate ships to each system at once? And even one Star Destroyer is overkill for anything to be found there.”

“There is logic to that. But not everyone is driven by logic.”

Caruthers laughed. “Not even those who profess to be.”

“Sorry?”

“Never mind, Princess. Lots of guesswork.”

“Here’s the puzzle,” Daari said. She tapped a few controls, and half the dots indicated systems visited by Tarkin’s Legacy winked out. “Imagine you only saw these.”

The pattern was obvious. “Calperi,” Pava said.

“The capital of Lammo Hegemony,” Daari acknowledged, indicating the clustering. They’re positioning… something along hyperlanes leading there.

“Not all of them.”

“Well, you don’t close off the entrance into a trap before you spring it. And Tarkin’s Legacy may not be the only ship involved.

"So what’s the rest of their tour about?” Caruthers brought back the entire itinerary of the Star Destroyer. “Throwing away data that doesn’t fit is not how you detect a pattern.”

“I’ll inform General Jade. She needs to see this before invading Calperi. Then we’re going to go here,” she gestured at a system visited by Tarkin’s Legacy that didn’t fit the pattern of surrounding Calperi, “and see for ourselves.”

“Without orders from Jade?” Caruthers asked.

“The Challenger is a scout ship of the Duros Royal Army,” Daari announced. “Let’s do some scouting. If Jade wishes to countermand, she has the codes. I have a feeling she won’t.”

“Understood, Captain,” Caruthers said. “Prepare for hyperspace.”

The intercom chirped. “Are we going somewhere?” Caami asked.

“Yes, we are,” Daari replied.

“Is it safe?”

“No.”

“Damn it! We’re fresh off repairs from your last stunt, Colonel Caruthers,” the chief engineer snarled. “Another–”

“It’s my decision,” Daari said. She did a quick calculation. “We have six hours in hyperspace. Do what you can to prepare.”

“Prepare for what?”

“Anything,” Caruthers said. “We really don’t know. We’re going to find out.”

Caami audibly sighed. “I will do my best. Caami out.”

“Not your biggest fan?” Pava asked.

Caruthers gestured at the ship’s controls. “Focus on the jump, Lieutenant. It’s… complicated. I was in Starfleet. I worked for the New Republic. Now I serve aboard the Duros ship. People get ideas about my loyalties… or lack thereof.”

“And?”

“As long as we have a common enemy, does it matter?”

“And after?” Daari asked.

“Anyone who thinks the Federation, the Republic, or the Kingdom of Duro should be enemies to one another is an enemy to all. Where they spring from is immaterial.”

“Interesting attitude.”

“It’s commonly declared, though less commonly followed. The New Republic was hell-bent on not repeating the errors of the Old, where tyranny came out of their own institutions. Hence the demilitarization. When Senator Organa was revealed to be Vader’s daughter, it looked like all the worst fears of those who dreaded the repeat of Palpatine’s rise were coming true. And here we are, having learned the lessons of the fall of the Old Republic too well.”

Pava interrupted their conversation. “Course laid in. Ready to jump, Captain.”

“Go ahead,” Daari ordered.

“May the Force be with us,” Pava said, and pulled the launch lever. The starlines in the viewport stretched and vanished.

 

10​

Rey stood at the top of a wide staircase, tightly gripping a red lightsaber and pushing back against a green blade. Her leg still ached from the pain, but it was growing duller. Palpatine sat on the throne to her left, eyes gleaming and a delightful smile on his face. Kylo, momentarily, shocked, stepped back and stared at the hilt in his hands and the green light of its shaft.

“Do you really want to refight the great battles between Jedi and Sith for all eternity, girl?” Palpatine demanded. “Or would you rather seize your destiny?”

Kylo was still staring at his weapon and surroundings. “Why?” he asked of no one in particular.

“We won’t be refighting this one,” she said. “Unlike Vader, my side here is clear.” She walked over to Ben and put a hand on his shoulder. “I don’t know what this all means.” She gestured at Palpatine. “He doesn’t either. We’ve already beaten him twice in these recreations.”

“Remember in whose place you stand, young Solo,” Palpatine drawled. “Remember his betrayal. That’s what Jedi do. They betray those who trust in them. She is no different.”

Rey raised her eyebrows. “Bargaining now? Is that the way of the Sith?”

Anger flashed and Sidious fired a lightning bolt. Rey twirled out of its way.

“He’s growing weaker, Ben,” Rey assured him. “Whatever this is…”

Kylo tightened his fists, and an audible crack echoed from the hilt of the lightsaber in his hand. The green blade disappeared, and he tossed the broken weapon aside. A walkway above the room trembled as its supports bent slightly.

“I… I can’t.”

Rey stared. “Can’t what?”

“Only the dark side gives you power, Solo! Use it!”

“He’s right!” Ben shouted in despair. “I can only use the dark side here!”

“Because you were already steeped in it, boy!” Palpatine goaded. “Now, release that anger, seize your power, and fulfill your destiny!”

“Or how about we finish him off once and for all,” Rey suggested.

“That is beyond you, girl, and you know it.”

“But not beyond the two of us together,” she announced and stepped forward. “And I can access the light side of the Force.”

With that, she ignited the crimson blade and faced Sidious. “I will hold him off. You don’t need to use the Force.”

Palpatine raised both hands and fired a full lightning blast at Ben. Rey stepped between them, catching it with the lightsaber and then imagining an invisible shield projecting from her hand. Behind her, Ben picked up Luke’s lightsaber and stared at it one more time. Then, resolving, himself, he strode forward.

Palpatine poured more lightning, and tried to again attack Ben, forcing Rey to move and block it. Rey met the Sith Lord’s eyes. In the two previous fights, unless the fight was two on one, Palpatine didn’t seem either concerned or even making a big effort. But now, he was focused, teeth grinding, muscles straining, as he made to pour more and more of the dark side into the room. It seeped from him, touching Rey as a cold, dull, ache in the arms holding up the saber and absorbing the lightning.

Hurry, Ben, Rey thought to him.

With Rey keeping herself in between Sidious and Ben, she’d walked up the staicase, around the throne, and was now barely two meters away from Sidious, with the viewport facing Endor behind her. But no matter how much she tried, she was unable to move a hair closer. The dark attack was too powerful, the mental energy coupled with it too great. Doubt crept in. Despite the previous fights, Palpatine had decades of experience sustaining himself with the dark side. She could easily tire out first.

Behind her, Kylo ignited the lightsaber and drew back his arm. The green blade pulsed unsteadily, and the hum from the hilt was dangerously loud. “Strike her down, boy!” Palpatine goaded. “Claim the legacy of the Sith. You will both die otherwise.”

Rey was straining so hard that she was unable to form words. She tried to send a silent thought for Ben to do the right thing.

He swung the blade, shattering the transparisteel viewport. The gust of wind was so sudden that it ripped the lightsaber from Rey’s hand and blew Palpatine off his throne. They tumbled for a fraction of a second, as the lightning poured all around them, stinging her, but then Rey found herself being pulled sideways, and felt Ben clutch her around her waist with one arm while he gripped a pipe on the wall with the other. Sidious, without support, was blown out into space.

“Nooooo!” he shouted, and quickly regained control and started pulling himself back. Rey looked around for something that would help them; they only needed to outlast Palpatine now. Even a Sith Lord couldn’t survive in a vacuum.

And then Rey understood. This isn’t the real Death Star. This is a construction of the Force. And I can manipulate it.

She closed her eyes and imagined a component familiar to her from Jakku. When she opened them, a small box with a lever materialized on the far wall. Ben stared from it to her. “What the–”

Rey extended her arm and pulled the lever with the Force. Right as Palpatine was about to float back inside through the broken port, emergency bulkheads slammed around it, killing the view, halting the air outflow, and leaving the Galactic Emperor outside in the void. Ben and Rey collapsed onto each other, exhausted beyond ability to stand.

“I hope it’s the last one,” they both said before white light engulfed them again.

XXX​

They were back on the wreck of the actual Death Star, rather than a Force recreation. The device with the two holocrons still plugged in remained on the table, as was Palpatine sitting in front of it. But the Sith Lord glared at them, still slightly transparent, and now he appeared paralyzed.

Both Ben and Rey had their own lightsabers in their hands. Red and blue blades ignited and the two simultaneously plunged them into the holocrons powering the resurrection device. Blue pierced the Sith tetrahedron, red the Jedi cube, and sparks fountained from the table.

The lightsaber handle turned hot in Rey’s hands. “Run!” Ben shouted, unnecessarily. They made it five meters before the whole thing exploded.

“Are you alright?” Rey asked first.

Ben nodded. “What the hell happened?”

“The kyber crystals have had enough, I think,” she murmured. There was nothing left of the contraption, the holocrons, or the lightsabers, and a neat spherical cutout on the desk where the explosion occurred. Nor was there any trace of Palpatine, or the darkness that surrounded him.

“He’s… gone?” Ben said.

“Can’t feel him in the Force anymore. And there’s hope that the knowledge of what that resurrection machine was and exactly how it worked died with him.”

Ben groaned. “It better have.”

She sighed. “What now, Supreme Leader?”

He glared back. “Hux probably proclaimed a change by now.”

“And what will you do? Take your place back and resume the galactic conquest?”

“If I do, I will have no choice. That is what the Supreme Leader does. No one in the First Order will accept it if I try to surrender.”

They argued as they made their way back to the surface. “The Resistance won’t take you in either,” she acknowledged. Not seeing a useful path, she pulled out the comlink. “Artoo,” she said. “Come in, Artoo.”

Chirp. “Kind of. Can you fly the X-Wing here?”

Two beeps in reply. “Oh? Well, we’d better listen to it.”

Inquiring whistle. “Yes, I said we. I’ll explain later.”

Engines trumpeted as the fighter descended onto the wreckage with Artoo in the back. Rey leapt into the cockpit and fired up the comm system. “Artoo has been monitoring all sorts of comm traffic,” she said. “First Order, Resistance, smugglers. Apparently, something big is going on.”

“Kingdom of Duro?” Ben asked.

“How did you know?”

“Because Hux hates them.” He corrected himself. “He hates them more than most other people.”

She looked at him. “Have you heard of this hyperdrive blocker weapon?”

He shook his head. “This is Hux’s doing.”

“After the blockade of their homeworld, though, the First Order isn’t doing anything. Duro is fighting the Lammo Hegemony, and winning.”

“That is definitely Hux. He’s going to put them on the margin of victory, and then pull it out from under them. Plus, it lets Duros destroy Lammo for him. He despised Snoke’s orders to leave Lammo be.”

“The Resistance needs a way to infiltrate the Dominion,” Rey said. “Apparently, every loophole used with the Supremacy has been patched.”

“Not every,” Ben said. “I can just go aboard.”

She shook her head. “You will be monitored. There’ll be no way for you to enact any sabotage, and you said you won’t be followed if you surrender.”

And then Ben smiled for what might have been the first time in years. “That’s where you come in. "I’ve got a perfect plan.” He stopped. “Almost perfect. It would be nice if you still had a lightsaber.”

Artoo chirped and a compartment slid open on his dome. A portion of a cylinder emerged. Rey reached out and took it. It was a lightsaber, alright. It was the same one that Kylo had just wielded in the final Force recreation.

“That’s Luke’s,” Ben said, forcing himself to be calm.

“How did you get it?”

The droid chirped. “I assumed you flew to Ach-To. When?”

A reply lifted both their eyebrows. “What? Right now?”

Another chirp. “Shortcut. Uh-huh. And what of my orders to stay. I might have need you.”

The reply was long and melancholic. “How did you know it would take a while?”

Both Ben and Rey jumped at the next whistle. “Luke told you.”

Artoo confirmed. “Impossible. Force Ghosts can’t even communicate with non-Force sensitives, much less droids.”

“That’s a generalization,” Ben said.

“I saw it recently.”

“It can depend on the place. You know there are places more attuned to the Force than others.”

“I suppose so.”

“And Palpatine was using a mechanical contraption to resurrect himself here. That could have had an effect.”

“Or just that Luke and Artoo have been together so long that a bond formed.”

Artoo whistled hopefully. “I see. Well,” she said, clipping the lightsaber on her belt. “Let’s go to your ship out there on the plain. And you can fill me in on this brilliant plan of yours.”

XXX​

The Challenger emerged from hyperspace and was instantly battered by meteors.

“What the hell?”

“Shields full!” Daari ordered. “This storm isn’t on any of the charts.”

“No, it’s not,” Caruthers frowned. “There is an asteroid field, but according to surveys, it’s supposed to be mostly large ones. My scans show nothing close by larger than a kilometer.”

“Something wrecked them?”

“Takes a lot of firepower,” Pava said. “What’s the point? Mining means gathering material, not scattering it.”

“Find the biggest intact rock and get us close. We’ll take samples and learn what happened.”

“Can you do it?” Caruthers asked Pava.

Jessika nodded. “But keep an eye on things, Colonel. I really don’t like this.”

The scheme turned out pointless. They had approached the kilometer-sized rock and began maneuvering to land on it when instrument panels flashed with alerts. “Star Destroyer!”

“It’s Tarkin’s Legacy,” Daari said.

“How did they know?” Caruthers demanded.

“Nevermind. Jump,” she ordered. Caruthers sighed, but understood, and powered up the hyperdrive. Fighting would only get all of them killed. She got through the barest of calculations, and pulled the lever.

Nothing happened.

“What’s the matter? Did they seed the system with blockers?”

“No. It’s more like a gravity well.”

“That asteroid isn’t enough.”

“Interdiction field?”

“Resurgent-class ships don’t have those.”

Challenger jerked. “Tractor beam.”

“Can you break it?”

Pava shook her head. “Here’s where your ships’ being underpowered works against you,” she said dryly.

“I’ll be sure to pass it on to the procurement bureau,” Daari replied with equal sarcasm.

She tapped the intercom. “Crew of the Challenger, this is Captain Daari. Abandon ship. Repeat, abanon ship. Get to your escape pods now!”

“What are you doing?”

“My duty,” Daari said. “Don’t worry, we might make it out alive.”

“Just how?”

“We wait till they drag us inside. I overload the reactor and we launch pods. We blow them up, and then send a distress call to General Jade.”

“Unfortunately, there’s a problem with your plan, Captain,” Pava said, and pointed to the scanner. “They’re not pulling us in with the beam. They’re pushing us down.”

“Down…?”

“To the asteroid.”

“They’re trying to crush us?”

“Not at this speed,” Caruthers said. “It’s definitely not First Order style.”

Daari nodded. “Suud, hail them.”

“They’re jamming our comms, ma'am.”

She nodded and sat back down in the captain’s chair. “Are you sure that is Tarkin’s Legacy?” she asked. “We know quite well that transponders are fakeable.”

A small thud reverberated through the Challenger before Jessika could answer. “We’re in contact with the asteroid surface.”

There was another, smaller jerk, and several lights on the instrument panel blinked out. “What was that?”

“Engineering here,” Caami’s voice came over the intercom. “Target ion blast near the second port hatch. Fried local electric systems.”

Daari rose. “Armed team to port hatch two, medium gear!” She then activated the comlink. “I’m keeping an open channel. You lose contact, you blow this ship up. Understand?”

“Yes, Captain.” Daari departed the bridge.

It took just over a minute for her to get to the destination. “We’re at port hatch two,” she said. “Caruthers, patch Caami into the circuit.”

“Already done, ma'am.”

“They’re opening it manually.”

“You can do that?” Caruthers asked in surprise.

“Sure,” the engineering officer replied. “If the crew is dead or incapacitated, locking out the rescue team is a bad idea.”

“It’s also means you can’t really lock the ship down.”

“Don’t leave her uncrewed in a hostile port,” Daari replied. “You can’t operate her without at least three crew anyway. Hatch opening. Don’t fire without orders.”

“Crew of the Challenger,” a new voice called out in impeccable Duros. “Please stand down. We mean you no harm.”

“Restraining this vessel is a hostile act!” Daari shouted back.

“Information security,” the voice said. “I would like to speak with your captain. We are not the First Order.”

“Caruthers, arm yourself and get down here,” Daari ordered. “Caami, you have the ship.”

“Understood, ma'am.”

“Who the hell are these people?” Pava asked.

“We’re about to find out.”

When she got to the hatch, Caruthers tried to glance inside, but it was a dark void. Daari had picked out two crewmembers to accompany them. “Why do you need me, Captain?”

“Experience,” Daari said. “Come on.”

They stepped aboard. Dim lights came up and they faced an armed squad, though the weapons were not aiming at them. All were armored and helmeted, the armor clearly inspired by Imperial stormtroopers but with touches of its own, and colored light gray instead of white.

The owners of the vessel made no attempt to disarm them, but took positions on all sides as they led them away from the hatch. The corridor lights grew brighter as they moved along it, and Caruthers could see it had been carved from solid rock. No one said anything until the tunnel widened into a larger space, well-lit and full of equipment typical of capital ship stations.

Their escort took off their helmets. Most were blue-skinned red-eyed humanoid aliens, as were the crew at the stations in the chamber. There was a smattering of humans and other species, though, and the person who approached them now looked fully human.

He said something in a language none of them recognized, and the troopers moved off. He then faced Daari. “Are you the captain?”

Daari nodded. “Ruffel Daari, Captain, RDA.”

“I apologize for any unpleasantness. As I said–information security. Vice Admiral Eli Vanto, Chiss Defense Fleet. Welcome aboard the Thrawn.”

XXX​

“I don’t understand,” Caruthers told Vanto. “Tarkin’s Legacy is right there. She’s a First Order Star Destroyer.”

“Not anymore,” Vanto said. “Though the crew I sent is doing their best to keep up the facade for now.”

“You took her.”

“We did. I must thank the Resistance for their part.”

“What part?”

“One of the things the First Order has emphasized is detection of homing beacons. They have equipment that detects standard beacons very easily, even in the powered-down state. You need some specialized hardware and a rather tricky installation process to get the one you used.”

“Resistance agents put one on Legacy when–”

“My intelligence operatives gave them the beacon in the first place. And installed a backdoor to let us monitor the ship. And thus, we could devise a trap for her.” He smiled.

“What were they doing? We came in the first place because of the weird movements,” Daari said.

“I’m afraid that’s my doing. I used her to observe First Order preparations for the battle at Calperi.”

Daari sighed. “We’ll be all-in against Lammo, and then–”

“Worse than that,” Vanto commented. “The Lammo capital world isn’t a planet, it’s one of three habitable moons orbiting a gas giant, and there are at least twenty other large moons, all of which have massive defense installations. Crossfire everywhere. You could have taken out the defenses with coordinated ground assaults–”

“Except that most of our ground forces are trapped on Duro.”

Vanto nodded. “And then there is a matter of your kingdom’s no longer-secret weapon.”

“Huh?” Caruthers asked.

“Distributed superlaser,” Vanto said. “A clever technique. But do you know why the Empire went with a full Death Star rather than do what you did?”

Ruffel frowned. “They didn’t care if one person could give an order for planetary destruction.”

“Perhaps,” Vanto conceded. “But there is also a technical reason. No matter how well you program your ships’ positions, they always move in relation to each other. And because they have mass, this causes fluctuations in the gravitational field in the process of firing the superlaser. You can’t get the rigidity of the Death Star firing dish with spaced out ships.”

“So?”

“I am not a physicist. I can only tell you what happens, not how, or why. The gravitational disbalance can be exploited by a modification in the target’s energy shield. The result transmutes the energy imparted by the beam into gravitational waves, and because most ships don’t have anything to contain that kind of attack… it explodes. You inflict damage on the target, but also on everything within a radius proportional to the energy you used on the beam. And the center of the explosion isn’t at the impact point on the target, it’s at the point where the beams converge, so you hurt yourself more than the enemy. I’ve watched what you did at Viwen. If that ship had the modifications, everyone in that battle would be dead.”

“Crap,” Daari said.

“They found this out early in the process of original Death Star design,” he said. “Tarkin’s Legacy was testing the shield adjustments here and in other systems.” He brought up two holograms. “As you see, the asteroids didn’t fare too well.”

“I need to warn General Jade.”

He nodded. “But do it in person. The First Order is too good at cracking ciphers.”

“Alright,” Daari said.

“Good. Now, what your Alliance’s plan for dealing with the hyperspace blockers?”

Caruthers and Daari exchanged looks. “Why do you think there is a plan?”

“Because if there isn’t, everything you do is pointless,” he said. “General Leia and King Gelemod are not the sort to send people to death without hope.”

Daari gave Caruthers a nod. “We want to reverse their pattern recognition signal, and then destroy the control system.”

Vanto smiled. “Sneaking aboard Dominion. How?”

“I’m not the person to ask,” Daari said. “I wouldn’t do much good there, so they won’t send me.”

“Going to use the fake Tarkin’s Legacy, no doubt,” Vanto replied.

“Speaking of it, if two ships with the same transponders are in the system, the blockers restrain both,” Caruthers said.

“Good to know. Tell you what,” he decided. “How about you use the real Tarkin’s Legacy instead?”

“You are willing to do that?” Daari asked.

“I haven’t decided yet on the best way to use the surprise against them,” he said. “This seems like a good option. If you agree to go aboard, that is.”

“And what will you do with this… asteroid ship?”

“I’ll be there,” he assured them. “But I can’t force you or your crew, or your leadership to trust my people with whatever specialists they need to modify the blocker software.”

“We’ll do it,” Daari decided.

“Excellent.” He tapped the comm on his desk. “Vanto to Legacy.”

“Admiral,” a female voice came over in accented Basic.

“Plan Mandragora, with modifications,” he said. “I’m releasing the Challenger crew back to their ship. Take them into your hangar bay, then set course for the Viwen system. In case of hostilities, release Challenger and head for Rendezvous Three.”

“Understood, sir,” the captain replied, and the comm clicked.

“Well, Captain Daari,” Vanto rose. “I trust there will be no attempts to blow up Legacy from within.”

“Do you have listening devices aboard Challenger?” Caruthers demanded.

“No, but you did keep the comlink channel with your chief engineer open all this time, and its one designed for speed of transmission rather than secure encryption. It’s a natural thought, anyway. I hope we meet again. May warrior’s fortune go with you.”

XXX​

Ben nearly collided with a Star Destroyer when his TIE silencer emerged from hyperspace. The capital ship was scorched, with fires raging across the hull, and he had to perform several tight maneuvers past the pieces of debris and tongues of flame before putting some distance between himself and the ship’s surface.

He opened a comm channel. “Dominion, this is Supreme Leader. I’ve suffered damage and am coming in–”

An X-Wing popped from hyperspace behind him, and also had to skirt the Star Destroyer.

“–under pursuit,” he finished. “Stand by to open docking bay shield.”

“Understood, Supreme Leader,” Hux’s voice held a slight snarl. “What is going on out there? First Tarkin’s Legacy, then you–”

“The Resistance is getting bold, General. It’s time we deal with them.”

Red bolts streaked past him. Careful there, he thought to Rey.

We want it to look real.

Too real.

Ben accelerated towards the docking bay. As if ignoring his comments, Rey fired two proton torpedoes. He twirled the fighter away from one, and hit another with his lasers. But the torpedo he dodged zoomed forward ahead of him, struck the side of the Mega Destroyer, and exploded. The shield protecting the docking bay fell.

Instantly, a blast door started swinging shut. Ben fired his thrusters on full to get inside the bay. Rey, behind, did the same, and clipped her wing as she made it through the last gap, causing the X-Wing to go into a spin. Both ships crashed onto the hangar floor, sliding down with showers of sparks, wrecking equipment and causing crew, droids, and stormtroopers to jump out of their way.

Rey leapt out of the cockpit, igniting the green lightsaber. Ben ripped a riot baton out a trooper’s hands with the Force, summoning it as he rushed to meet her. The weapons clashed and the two danced across the hangar floor.

It was part of a plan, and he was quite certain neither of them intended to hurt the other. But they had to make it look real, so both made every strike with full force, relying on the other to be able to parry or dodge, and not aiming for vital areas. Rey, appropriate for a Jedi and physically smaller, mostly defended and gave ground. Finally, when she was about fifteen meters from the hangar bulkhead, a turbolift cabin came up the shaft behind her. Rey leapt backwards, landing on top of the machine and rising beyond his reach and quickly, out of sight.

Ben smashed a crate with the baton, then broke the weapon in half on his knee. Fury on his face, he strode up to a stormtrooper officer.

“Find her.”

“Yes, Supreme Leader.”

He whipped out a comlink. “Status report, General.”

“Tarkin’s Legacy is docking into the internal bay for repairs. Two minutes, and we’ll be underway. Rest of the fleet is already in hyperspace.”

“Understood, General. I’ll be on the bridge shortly.” As soon as I get my spare lightsaber from my quarters to kill you with, he thought. Good luck, he wished to Rey in the Force.

 

11​

Absolution was as ready as she could be when they emerged in the Calperi system. Which was nowhere near ready enough.

As expected, the Duros had hemmed the Lammo fleet and were besieging the capital moon, but the First Order, vastly outnumbering both forces combined, had arrived soon after.

“They’ve already deployed hyperspace blockers,” the sensor station reported.

“It’s win or die,” Cardinal said. “Enterprise, status on Tarkin’s Legacy?”

“They’re inside,” Nog reported. “Apparently, the deception worked for now.”

“Launch fighters,” Cardinal ordered.

Instead of an acknowledgment, though, an alarm blared. “Sir, launch control reports–”

“What, Ensign?” Cardinal snarled.

“Impossible–”

“What is happening?”

“People appearing underneath our launch bay! Just appearing!”

The ship shook. “They’re inside! Wrecking everything!”

“Finn, take charge of security detachments.” Cardinal shook his head. “Admiral Nog, apparently your technology has been stolen.”

“Understood. They can’t beam through shields though, or use it with their own shields up. You got unlucky.”

“Thanks a lot,” Cardinal snapped.

“Another group of troopers appearing. Looks like they can do two companies at a time.”

“Close the launch bay. Good to know they won’t beam in a division.” He nodded at Finn. “Go.”

XXX​

On the bridge of the Enterprise, Leia Organa suddenly rose. “Did you just say they need to bring their shields down to use the transporter?”

“Yes. We’ve detected several seconds without shields both times they beamed spacetroopers to the vicinity of Absolution.”

“That means you can beam someone aboard in that period.”

Captain Ferarro turned to her. “It’s risky. What do you have in mind?”

“Beam me inside the flagship,” she said.

“But you command the Resistance!”

“I’m not really needed here.” She activated the comlink. “Organa to Dameron.”

“Dameron here,” Poe replied.

“You’re in command until I report back.”

“General–”

“That’s right. General Dameron,” she emphasized. “I’m ready. As as you spot the opportunity, send me there.”

“But… why?” Nog inquired.

“A feeling,” she admitted. “I need to be there.”

“Your spider-sense?” the operations officer asked.

“What?”

“Classical reference. Never mind.” She tapped the combadge. “Chief Kominn, can you do this?”

“Yes, ma'am. Assuming the Dominion does drop the shield again.”

“They’re doing so now! More spacetroopers!”

“Absolution hasn’t fully shut the bay yet!”

“Kommin, energize!”

And with that, Leia vanished off the Enterprise‘s bridge in a swirl of golden light.

XXX​

“Supreme Leader,” Hux greeted Kylo from the bridge of the Dominion. “The Duros believe Lammo planetary defenses are in poor shape, and they only have to hammer down their fleet. We will suprise them and their Resistance allies soon.”

Kylo nodded and walked around the tactical hologram. “Is that the Absolution?”

Hux smiled at that and gestured to a man in a plain uniform without rank markings. “You haven’t met Voss Torel, Supreme Leader. He provided us with the secret of enemy matter teleporter, and we’ve used it successfully. Fifth Battalion is aboard and will soon take it back from the traitors.”

“They can’t escape?”

“We’ve cut off the system. Only our ships can use hyperspace here.”

“Good. Have you found the Jedi girl?”

“No, Supreme Leader.”

An alarm rang out. “General, Repair Bay Two is offline!”

“What do you mean, offline?”

“No power, no sensors.”

“Get me someone on the ground there!”

The comm officer began rapidly trying channel after channel, getting more frustrated as he got mostly static. Finally managing to get a hold on someone, he nodded at Hux.

“What the hell is going on?”

“It’s Tarkin’s Legacy, sir. Troops came out of her and are firing on us!”

A blaster shot came over the comm, and there was silence.

“Contain them!” Hux ordered. “Reinforce the engineering section!” He turned to Kylo. “I have an idea, Supreme Leader. Let’s surprise them. We can use the matter transporter to take you right to the Legacy’s bridge.”

“I don’t think, so, General,” Kylo said.

Hux grinned. “Too bad.” Kylo turned, ignited the lightsaber and swung at Hux, but it was too late. Voss Torel tapped the control, and Kylo Ren vanished from the bridge.

He wouldn’t be going over to Tarkin’s Legacy, either.

XXX​

Ben was surrounded by darkness worse than any he’d ever experienced. He was also falling down, air rushing by. He reached out with the Force to get a sense of his surroundings.

And got nothing.

He tried to feel for Rey somewhere on the ship.

Nothing.

Fear gripped him and he screamed, plummeting down. He drew his lightsaber, but the grip was clumsy, and he dropped it. It fell faster than him, with his arms and legs spread out. He heard the clank below and closed his eyes as he prepared for impact.

So this is how it ends. Rey, kill Hux for me.

Instead of a deadly crash, though, he felt the wind in his ears slow down and stop. He was still in the air, but no longer falling. Instead, he felt a gentle downward tug, and he righted himself before drawing an emergency glowrod and igniting it.

A pair of hands were extending towards him, guiding him down. The person was dressed in black and covered in a hood, but Ben instantly knew who it was. He would have recognized that ring anywhere. She released him when he was about a foot off the ground, and he stumbled, unable to process the third shock in less than a minute.

His rescuer took off her hood, revealing the first face he’d ever known. General Leia Organa had picked up his lightsaber and clipped it on her belt before striding towards him.

“Mother–”

She slapped him.

He stepped back and blinked several times. “I guess I deserved that.”

“You do not want to get what you deserve, Ben,” she admonished. “But then, I don’t want you to get what you deserve, either.” She looked him over. “What happened to you?”

He reached out and was still unable to feel her, Rey, anyone else in the Force. He tried to pull a loose bolt from a nearby bulkhead and couldn’t. “I can’t access the Force.”

“I won’t ask.”

“It’s the matter teleporter from this Federation,” he said. “Hux used it on me. He betrayed me–”

“Are you surprised?”

“No.”

“I came here by teleporter, too, and as you’ve just seen, I can use the Force as always.”

“Rey’s here,” he said. “We destroyed the spirit of Palpatine, and she’ll help your people find the control to the hyperspace blockers.”

Leia raised her eyebrows. “Really?”

“He had a way to resurrect himself.”

“Good. There’s still the First Order. Or are you just going to tell them to stand down?”

“Not how it works, mother. I was planning on killing Hux, though.”

“Then we better do it, Ben.”

“How? I no longer have the Force.”

“First, the Force is with all of us. Second, your father never could use it and he’s pulled off capers that make this look like a leisurely stroll. And third, I’m here.” She tapped the lightsaber on her belt. “Come on. You know how it works.”

“Hux can just use the transporter on me again.”

She smiled. “He stole the tech. I’ve got it from those who made it.” She tapped a button on a small badge on her chest. “As soon as we saw they had it, they gave this scrambler. Stay close to me, Ben, and you’ll be safe.”

XXX​

Enemy spacetroopers had pushed from the docking bay through the corridors, and were nearly at main engineering. Finn was unable to gather enough of the Absolution’s stormtroopers before they got to the vital area, and had to start a firefight outnumbered. Rose joined him, along with some of her crew, armed with blasters.

“I need more troops on the engineering deck now!” he yelled into his comlink. He fired, and a well-placed bolt fell a spacetrooper. The specialized armor, while making them rather clumsy, was tougher than the standard version, and required precise hits to do damage.

“Is that… a battle droid?” Rose asked incredulously.

Finn peered through the smoke. “Looks like one. Odd. First Order doesn’t–”

“Surrender, traitors!” a voice shouted, and Finn gasped instinctively. So did several of his soldiers. “But I thought–”

“It’s a trick. It has to be.” He dispatched several bolts. The droid evaded them. Doubt began to creep up Finn’s spine. The movement was familiar…

The droid activated an energy shield, causing bolts to bounce off it. The First Order troops formed up behind it and advanced, putting down covering fire.

“Fall back!” Finn ordered, and activated the comlink. “Captain Cardinal, Phasma is here.”

“What the hell?” Cardinal demanded. “You said–”

“They made a droid body, but it’s her voice and her movements. It’s her, or something based on her.”

“Brain transplant. Most such experiments fail.”

“This one didn’t! And if we don’t do something about her, she’ll take engineering!”

“Understood. Tell your troops to hold on to something!”

Finn knew when there was no time for explanations. He passed on the instructions, gripped a blast door handle with one arm and pulled Rose to himself with the other.

There was a powerful yank and he almost let go, sliding sideways down the corridor. Phasma’s troopers, unprepared, were thrown back in the opposite direction, and even Phasma herself was hurled twenty meters before her droid legs pierced the floor plating and stabilized her.

The pull disappeared as abruptly as it began. “What was that?”

“Toned down inertial dampeners and threw the ship into a spin,” Cardinal said. “Not pleasant, but it works.”

“For now. Follow me!” he ordered. “We need to keep them off engineering.”

But Phasma and her troopers were putting out a murderous hail of blaster fire, which Finn had to constantly seek cover from. At least a firefight erupted at the far end of the corridor, keeping some troopers busy. But Phasma had very quickly regained ground, and Finn knew she wouldn’t be tricked again by the spinning trick.

“PHASMA!” a new voice roared. Finn and Rose turned to see Captain Cardinal, unexpectedly arrived from the bridge. The captain lifted a portable rocket launcher and fired.

The explosion produced a blinding flash of of light and tossed everyone back. Finn came to in a few moments, ringing in his ears. The ringing got louder, and when he looked up, he saw Phasma crawling across the ceiling. One of the droid legs had been torn off and lay on the floor below. Before Finn got up, she pounced on Cardinal, pinning him down and smashing.

His mentor, his captain, his friend was going to die. Finn looked around for something, anything he could do. A bolt from a rifle bounced off Phasma’s droid head uselessly. Everyone who could help was battling spacetroopers some distance away.

And then he spotted a possibility. “Rose, can you take control of that hatch from here?”

Rose looked where he was pointing. “That’s an escape pod!” she said in outrage. “You can’t!”

“Can you?”

“Of course.” She pulled out her datapad and tapped a few keys. “Done. Why?”

“Finn to bridge. On my command, turn off art-grav for two seconds.”

“Understood, Commander.”

Phasma had already rendered a bloody gash in Cardinal’s torso and was about to strike again with a sharp edge popped from one of her droid arms when Finn ran up, gripped the droid body, and used the full strength of his legs to pull her off the captain. His arms ached under the tremendous weight. “Now!” he shouted at the comlink. “Rose, hatch!”

He let go the moment the weight disappeared and kicked Phasma while she was in mid-air. The droid body hurled down the corridor, with Finn flying in the opposite direction. The two seconds he’d asked for were nearly up when she flew through the open hatch and into the escape pod.

“Launch!” he shouted at Rose as the gravity returned and dropped and rolled to the floor. Rose nodded, and worked her pad. Phasma was moving inside, but the hatch slammed, and in a moment, they heard the whoosh of a pod launch.

Finn picked up the comlink. “Escape pod E-228 just launched. Destroy it.”

“Yes, sir.”

He and Rose rushed up to Cardinal and gasped at the blood. “Medic–”

“No,” the captain breathed. “Is she gone?”

Finn drew the comlink again. “Report.”

“Escape pod E-228 has been destroyed.”

Finn nodded. “We did it.”

Cardinal smiled. “Thank you… Captain.”

“Sir?”

But Cardinal said nothing more. Finn knelt next to the body, and had to wipe tears off his face. “No–”

Rose squeezed his hand. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

He nodded and forced to lift himself, then spoke into the comlink. “Any spacetroopers remaining?”

“Negative, sir. All killed or captured.”

“Good work. Stand down from internal security alert.” He turned to Rose. “I need to return to the bridge.”

“Should I come with you?” she offered.

He sighed. No matter what he wanted, he was responsible for all the crew of this ship now, and her part in the battle, which they had to win. Rose had to be the engineer now.

“I will be alright,” he assured her.

“I sure hope so,” she said, and gave him a quick kiss. “Captain.”

XXX​

Lieutenant Paige Tico, Science Officer of the USS Delta Quadrant, hated being protected. Arguing with the Chiss company commander proved useless despite the initial relief the woman expressed when the Universal Translator proved to work, and she didn’t need to use elementary Basic to communicate.

“You’re the one who’s been studying this tech. You need to make it to the data core alive.”

In practice, that meant that several Chiss troopers already hadn’t, ambushed by stormtroopers in the corridors as they pushed away from the repair bay where the captured Tarkin’s Legacy had infiltrated and where they had disabled all the equipment with ion blasts.

“I’ve given instructions–”

“Things never work exactly as you plan,” the major cut off.

And so, Paige was had a combat suit of her own, plus a wall of armored and armed bodies around her. If she’d been a Vulcan, the logic might have been sufficient. She wasn’t.

I should have asked Rose to come, she thought. Figuring out how to deal with a newly found branch of the family let them both enjoy themselves. I doubt she’d leave her boyfriend, though.

A chirp from her datapad pulled her out of her thoughts. “In here,” she pointed to a door on their left.

“Stand back,” one of the troopers said, and taking off something off his belt, tossed it forward. The object attached to the door with a metallic clang and exploded. The door disappeared, apparently turned into a cloud of smoke.

Immediately after, seven other door opened nearby, some in places where it didn’t even look like there were doors. Out of each stepped a black-robed masked figure, backed up by a squad of stormtroopers. Blasters came up all around them.

Then the black figures reached for their belts and pulled out weapons. Seven red lightsaber blades ignited at once.

“My name is Runo Ren,” the lead figure said. “You may surrender, or you can die.”

 

12​

“Runo Ren reports that the infiltrators reached Control Core 3.”

“Excellent,” Hux smiled. “Tell him to report when he’s dealt with them.”

“Yes, sir.”

“The Duros have finished off the Lammo fleet and are assembled around the capital moon. They’re maneuvering to assist the Resistance.”

“Not for long. Stand by to activate Lammo stationary defenses.”

“Standing by.”

“Crap.”

“What is it, Torel?”

“The teleporter. Someone is trying to disable bridge controls. If they take it–”

Hux gulped. The prospect of being beamed out into space without warning wasn’t appealing at all. “Take a detachment and handle it.”

Torel left without a word.

“Defense stations, fire on the Duros fleet.”

Several alarms rang out from tactical stations. “Sir, a number of asteroids emerged from hyperspace!”

“Asteroids?”

“There are explosions! They’ve filled the system with rock fragments!”

Hux frowned. “Not so big that shields can’t handle–”

“They’re broadcasting Duros sensor profiles, sir! Thousands of them. Our targeting is out of whack.”

“Asteroids changing orbits–sir, they’re going to impact the defense installations!”

“Which ones?”

“All of them!”

“Duros fleet approaching.”

“Another asteroid above us. Big one!”

“It’s firing!”

Hux clenched his fists. “Contact Phasma. I need a progress report on Absolution. We still outgun them. Manuever us for a full dorsal volley.”

“Against Duros or the Resistance?”

“The Resistance. Specifically, the ship they stole. Target the Punisher.”

XXX​

Voss Torel walked into the teleporter chamber and found the operations crew he’d left missing. Inspecting the console, he found the link to the bridge control physically severed. He began a diagnostic to see if there had been any sabotage when a shot rang out and he had to instinctively roll away from a heavy blaster bolt.

When he leapt up on his feet, he was astonished to see that his enemy contrived to bring in an AT-PT into the tight quarters. More bolts screamed by. Anger took over, and the lightsaber blade popped from his artificial arm. He tossed aside the next several bolts and leapt forward, smashing the lightsaber against the pilot’s viewscreen.

The blade only found empty air behind the glass, and then he fell as the vehicle suddenly lost balance. He’d caught a glimpse of a white lightsaber, and then he flipped backwards to avoid being crushed by the AT-PT’s cockpit. The next moment, he found himself facing two lightsaber blades and their familiar bearer.

“Ahsoka Tano,” he said.

“Voss Torel,” she replied, and struck. He parried, tried to get through her block, but was stymied by the second blade.

“This shouldn’t be possible!” he shouted at her as the duel continued. “I still have the Force, and you lost it in this Federation contraption years ago!”

“Perhaps I regained it,” she declared. “Perhaps I’m just better at swordplay. Perhaps you’re out of touch.” Her blades spun with deadly precision, parrying his every blow. He could push her, force a retreat, but never found a gap in her defenses he could exploit, and she didn’t give him one by going on the attack.

“You can’t regain it,” he said.

“I’ve been to the Unknown Regions,” she answered over a series of blade clashes. “I’ve learned a lot.”

Without warning, he used his left hand to draw a blaster and shoot. Ahsoka dodged sideways, and cut the barrel with the tip of her lightsaber before he could get off a second shot. With her other saber, she parried his strike, and backed off several steps.

“You can’t do this forever.”

“Says who?”

“I can summon help.”

“So can I,” she retorted.

She retreated a bit more, up one step to the heart of the teleportation machine and the platform where ideally, one of the endpoints of the process would be. He only realized what she was doing when she tapped a button on her wrist and vanished right before he swung his lightsaber through empty space.

“That’s right, cowardly Jedi,” he snarled. “Run.”

He began to rise, and gasped as two glowing white shafts emerged from his chest. Then the pain hit, and he screamed.

“Wrong on all counts, Torel. I’m no coward, I’m no Jedi, and I didn’t run.”

Ahsoka stepped away from Torel’s body and stood by the transporter control console. She selected a setting, tapped a few keys, and activated the machine. Six humanoid-sized black cylinders appeared on the platform. Ahsoka went to them, opened a panel on each, and tapped in a command. Then she opened an access hatch and dropped down the maintenance tunnel. She waited, looking at her chrono. An explosion rumbled half a minute later.

She sighed in relief and drew her comlink. “First Order transporter destroyed,” she reported.

“Acknowledged, Fulcrum. Do you need evac?”

“Negative. I’ll handle myself.”

“You’d better.”

XXX​

“Another Resistance ship latched on to our surface! They’re deploying troops on the outer hull, targeting sensors, shield projectors–sir, they’re Mandalorians!”

Hux peered at display. Helmeted, armored figures were indeed working the outside of the Dominion‘s hull, attacking vital points. One of them raised their rifle and fired. The bolt headed straight towards them, and then the screen went dark.

Hux managed a grim smile. “Our sensors can detect beskar armor. Use the teleporter to send them as far away as possible.”

“Sir, the transporter unit is no longer operational. It’s not present in the control system, and sensors report nothing from where it used to be.”

“Nothing?”

“I’m sending an scanning droid in.” The technician paused. “Sir, you need to see this.”

Growling, Hux strolled up. Hot flames were pouring out of the door where Torel had set up his copy of the Federation machine. The droid got within five meters, and its vitals were already in the red; it would cease functioning within minutes. No person or mechanism could have surived the inferno inside.

“Hux to Torel,” he said on the intercom, and received nothing.

“Hux to Torel,” he repeated. No response.

“Ent–Punisher is in sights for dorsal volley.”

“Fire!”

The bridge door opened, and gave Hux the biggest shock of his life as Kylo Ren strode in, cloak torn, face caked with dried blood, and rage in his every facial muscle.

“Out!” he shouted at the bridge crew. “All of you!”

Fear made them obey quickly, and Ren moved to lock down the escapes as they left. “Anything you want to say, General,” he snarled.

“You should be dead.”

“Fate has decreed otherwise.”

Hux snorted. “Did fate also intervene and stop the machine from depriving you of your sorcery?”

“You mean that was deliberate?”

“Torel knew it was possible, and adapted it.”

“Where is Torel?”

“Dead.”

“Painfully, I hope.”

“Not as painfully as you will be!” He drew his blaster and fired five circular stun bolts. Ren even managed to avoid getting hit by the first two, but then three in a row impacted his legs and chest. He fell down, unconscious.

With his thumb, he switched the weapon’s setting to kill, and aimed for Ren’s head. A familiar snap-hiss sound hit his ears and he turned towards it and fired.

Princess Leia moved and caught the bolt on the blade of Ren’s red lightsaber. Hux gasped as the two energy shafts collided and the bolt bounced back where it came from. It hit him in the chest, and pain brought him down on his knees. Forcing himself with sheer will, he raised the blaster on Leia again and squeezed the trigger. She deflected the fire again, and some of the new bolts erupted in new sources of pain on his body.

“Keep away from my son,” was the last thing Hux ever heard.

XXX​

A slab of metal dropped off the ceiling and crushed Runo Ren underneath. A figure in white dropped from the hole, and a green lightsaber flared up while Runo’s weapon flew up into the newcomer’s hand and also ignited. A blue and white astromech droid lowered itelf into the corridor on manuevering jets and approached.

“Go!” the Chiss major ordered Paige, pointing to the door. “We’ll protect you.”

Paige didn’t even try to argue. In the doorway, the astromech joined her, and gave a loud whistle.

She raised her eyebrow. Surely the Universal Translator can handle some machine audio code with no problems?

Apparently not, as the next beep sequence indicated. “Fine,” she said, hoping the droid could understand her. “I need to place a special patch on the computer core in there,” she announced.

Behind them, the cacophony of blasters and lightsabers got louder, and she heard a loud female voice shout, “I’ve killed Snoke, you amateurs!”

“Lying Jedi twerp!” someone retorted.

“Kylo told us the truth!”

“I doubt that!” The shout was followed by a really loud lightsaber clash.

“What’s that about?” Paige asked, but only got incomprehensible chirps in reply. The computer station was shut down, and when she attempted powering it up, its screen lit up for less than ten seconds and demanded an access code. When she failed to input one, it shut down.

“Son of a–”

The droid extended an arm and put a welding torch to the console. “Hey!” Paige shouted. “You can’t do that! We might destroy the thing, and needs to happen after we reverse the pattern signal to the hyperspace blockers.”

The droid produced a confident trill and continued welding. Paige frowned, and tried to pull its arm off the console. The droid popped out another arm and gave her a mild electric shock. She yelped and jerked away.

With a triumphant whistle, the droid pulled off a square section of metal and inserted another attachment inside. The light in its head began to change color as he worked, and several seconds later, the console activated again. When the code screen came up, the droid gave more chirps, and numbers appeared in the entry slots. Then the access screen vanished and was replaced with the control panel.

Paige had little time to be astonished. “Thanks,” she patted the droid on the dome, and pulled out her padd and system interface. She didn’t see anywhere she could plug in, though, until the droid pointed its arm into the hole it cut.

“I see,” she murmured, and made the connection. “Alright, let’s get on this.” It would take some time for the program to churn and give her access, and she looked back to the door. Most of the Chiss troopers moved inside the chamber, and the young woman stood in the doorway, blocking shots and parrying strikes with her lightsabers.

Her padd pinged. “Got it!” She triggered the software patch. “Tico to Legacy,” she commed. “It’s done.”

“Understood. Stand by.”

“Good work,” the commander of the security company said.

“If it does what it should. The Enterprise will want to test it out before we destroy this core.”

“Walkers!” someone shouted.

“Damn. Trouble?” she asked the Jedi.

“Difficulty,” she admitted.

“We can use the transporter.”

The major sighed. “I’ve listened to the briefing. You can’t beam through shields, and the Domion’s are still up.”

“But the Legacy is inside Dominion”, Paige replied.

“And it doesn’t have your teleporters installed.”

“No, but neither does Absolution. So when I came over, I used a shuttle. A Federation shuttle.”

The major blinked. “Can you do it?”

“I’ve just accessed an unfamiliar computer system and fundamentally changed its function. Give me some credit. I can access our technology and make it do what it’s supposed to.”

“Legacy to Tico. Enterprise reports successful hyperdrive operation for Resistance and blockage for First Order.”

“Demolitions!” the major shouted. “Rig it!”

The specialist team of Chiss troopers began placing explosive charges on the computer core. Paige tied her combadge to her Padd and powered up the Starfleet shuttle sitting in Tarkin’s Legacy’s bay. “Major, I will begin beaming your troopers out, four at a time. You, me, her and Ensign Si'la'duo,” she pointed at the leader of the demolition team, “will be last.”

The Jedi tossed one of the Knights’ of Ren lightsabers into the corridor, and got a bright flash and shrieks. “Plasma conduit burst,” the major said. “Clever.”

Paige frantically worked the console. As the Chiss troopers were taken away, pressure on the remaining ones mounted. The Jedi alone, no matter how good, probably wouldn’t be able to block everything.

She didn’t try, though. When a squad of stomtroopers near the doorway stepped aside to let an AT-PT through, she turned to the major. “Lay down intensive fire!” she said.

“Do it!”

The troopers, some taking up a blaster rifle in each hand, opened up. The AT-PT shrugged off the fire, but when it fired back, the woman blocked the shots. Then she hurled her lightsaber, spinning, and cut off one of the walker’s legs. It collapsed in the doorway, forming a crude barricade, and the weapon flew back into her hand.

“Charges set!”

Paige beamed out the last of the supporting troopers, and began the lock on process for the Jedi, the major, Si'la'duo, and herself. Stormtroopers and Knights of Ren stormed over the walker, and put everyone in the cross fire.

“Detonation, two seconds!”

“Energizing!”

The computer core chamber vanished and was replaced by the interior of a Starfleet shuttle. The Jedi woman collapsed as soon as she materialized next to Paige.

“Detonation confirmed,” Si'la'duo said.

“Are you alright?” Paige asked the Jedi.

She nodded, breathing heavily. “Just exhausted.”

Something shook around them. “What’s happening?”

“We’ve overstayed our welcome,” the major replied. “Captain is going to blast us out of the Dominion. Brace yourselves.”

XXX​

“They really don’t like defectors, do they?” Ferraro asked, looking at the swarm of TIE fighters pounding Tarkin’s Legacy as she pulled away from the Dominion. Several Resistance squadrons were on their way.

“Sir, report from forward starboard hangar. They’ve picked up an escape pod with General Organa aboard. And… her son.”

Nog turned his head. “She took him prisoner?”

“I think he came willingly.”

“Take him to the brig. Have General Organa come up here.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Fleet emerging to port!”

“Friendly?”

“More Duros cruisers, sir. Looks like it. They’ve opened fire on the First Order.”

 

Awesomeness! So much win!

Liked the quote from The Martian.

 

Thanks. It's not entirely my idea, I was inspired by this awesome Tumblr post, and particularly the bit about personal logs.

There's also a Marvel reference and a veiled Philip K. Dick reference, if you care to look.

 

13​

The hologram emerging on the bridge of the Covenant was one Mara expected, which didn’t make it good. “General Jade,” Noripel Daar drawled. “I am assuming command of all Duros forces in the system.”

“You took an awful risk, General,” Mara said. “The hyperspace blockers have been disabled, but you couldn’t have known that when you departed. You might have trapped the entire home fleet here and left the Kingdom defenseless.”

“As if a human gives a damn about the Kingdom,” Daar snarled. “To the fleet. Formation Sigma, position 233-98-26.”

“General, no!”

“Excuse me?”

“It’s not going to work. Our multi-ship superlaser’s inherent instability leaves room for a counter.”

“I never head of it?”

“Why would you? Most who worked on the tech have been dead for decades. But it exists, and the First Order knows about it.”

“How convenient.”

“What?”

“True colors shine in peril, Jade! You won’t be permitted to spend Duros blood to preserve human lives!”

“I provide the Kingdom information about its enemies, General.”

“You are the Kingdom’s enemy.”

Mara watched as cruisers, from both among the newcomers and her fleet, began maneuver into a circular formation. She shut down the comm to Daar and opened one to the Enterprise. “I suggest everyone jump away, Admiral.”

A new voice popped in. “He’s going to fire.”

“Who are you?”

“Vice Admiral Vanto, aboard the Thrawn. I still have a couple of rocks in hyperspace. I can bring them into the path of the beam, if you want.”

She understood. “That’s how you took out the defense grid.”

“With hyperspace blockers, the asteroids remained in system after jumping into hyperspace. Hux didn’t even realize that taking away long distance travel gave us a cloaking device.”

“Will it help?”

“It’ll buy time.”

“Do it, then. Jade out.”

“Comm signal from Daar.”

“Send it through.”

“Why isn’t the Covenant taking her place in formation?”

“Because I have no intention of having my crew destroyed for your folly, General.”

“I gave an order.”

“Remember why we use separate ships? So that the power is not all on the same vessel. Not all in your irresponsible hands, General.”

“You will be court-martialed.”

“Look around you,” she said. Most smaller Resistance ships had already jumped away. Enterprise and Absolution were still fighting, though they pulled back from the Dominion, engaging only the Star Destroyers on the periphery.

“Cowardly humans,” Daar dismissed. “Fire.”

Beams from the cruisers, joined up into a superlaser, and sped towards the First Order flagship. There was a flicker, and the beam shattered a kilometer-wide asteroid that popped out of hyperspace in its path. That cut off the green light, and the weakened remnant impacted on the hull of the Dominion, but was absorbed by her shields.

“Reorient! Destroy that asteroid ship!”

“Now you’re going to fire on an ally?” Mara demanded.

“Anyone who keeps me from destroying the First Order is no ally.”

“We’ve won, General. They’re stuck in whatever systems they’re currently in, and our coalition can sweep them up at will.”

She was ignored. “Fire!”

But before the new beam formed, Thrawn vanished into hyperspace. The superlaser pierced empty space, and Daar screamed with rage.

“Retarget Dominion and fire at will!”

XXX​

Challenger dodged debris from the battle, scanning for escape pods with lifesigns and dragging them in with tractor beams. Caruthers had shut everything around her out, concentrating on flying. They still had some shields, but not enough to withstand a major collision.

“Prepare for jump–next time Daar fires, the rejection will wreck this system,” Captain Daari said.

“Understood,” the navigator worked the hyperdrive console.

“There are still people out there!”

“Everyone who stays will die. Prepare to jump!”

“General Jade on the line.”

“Captain Daari,” Jade said without preamble. “Special transmission incoming.”

“What the–”

There was a chirp in a tone Caruthers never heard before. Captain Daari spent a few seconds in consideration before giving the order. “Patch me through to General Daar, and broadcast our conversation.”

“I see the human infection got to you, Princess,” Daar’s hologram gestured at Caruthers.

“Not anymore,” Daari said. “One hour ago, my father was struck down by a First Order assassin. Do not fire the superlaser, General. I order you as your Queen.”

Daar blinked, and Ruffel continued. “All Duros ships, I forbid you to fire the superlaser on the Dominion.”

The ring formation was broken as a number of cruisers left it. Caruthers used the moment to reconcentrate on the flying and rescue operations, but then was interrupted again.

Something changed. “He’s broadcasting the hologram of our bridge to the fleet.”

“So?” the Princess–no, the Queen asked.

“All Duros vessels, I submit that our queen is under duress. You see the human with her. Not even one of our supposedly loyal humans formally enlisted in our Army. No, a foreigner human. We will rescue her, but first, we must neutralize the threat of the First Order. If you are loyal to the Kingdom, return to formation and destroy the Dominion.”

“He doesn’t need anyone to return to formation,” the navigator said. “Thirteen cruisers never moved. That’s plenty!”

“Contact Jade and Nog!”

“Online, ma'am–er, Your Majesty.”

“Never mind. General, Admiral, he’s going to fire–now!”

“Understood.”

“All Duros vessels, jump to hyperspace!”

The Resistance already received the order, and the remaining patrolling fighters quickly vanished one by one, followed by the Absolution and finally Enterprise. So did the Duros ships, except those still obeying Daar no matter what.

“Go, Princess,” Jade said.

Daari nodded. “Jump.”

Stars stretched out in the viewport and vanished.

XXX​

The Challenger had a weaker hyperdrive than the bigger Duros cruisers, and was weighted down by all the people they rescued before having to flee. So by the time they emerged at Duro, Covenant was already there.

She did not look good. The hull was breached in several places, almost every weapon emplacement was a giant scorchmark, and the ship was kept from drifting by a pair of tractor beams from Enterprise and Absolution. A comm came in, and Jade appeared in the projection. She was using a portable holotransmitter instead of the ship’s built-in systems, and when she zoomed out, a number of the crew were floating in mid-air, indicating the art-grav gave out.

Caruthers whistled. “Whoa.”

“Barest whiff of the blastback,” Jade explained. “Someone pulled the hyperdrive lever just a bit too late. Scouts have returned and confirmed, by the way. Nothing of either fleet remains, and the habitable moons are… not so habitable anymore.”

“It’s not real, is it?” Daari asked.

“The assassin? Quite real, as it turned out. There was an attempt. It did not succeed. Your father lives and he’s on his way here. There will be consequences, Princess.”

“We did what we needed to.”

“We shall see.”

XXX​

“Thank you, Admiral Vanto.”

“Warriors’ fortune go with you, General Organa.” The strange human’s hologram vanished, and a moment later, the asteroid ship Thrawn, with the Star Destroyer Tarkin’s Legacy clamped onto it (as a First Order ship, her hyperdrive was useless) disappeared into hyperspace. Leia drew a breath and pulled the datacard encoding the transmission from the datapad.

She handed it to Poe. “Last known dispositions of First Order occupation forces,” she informed him. “By the time they figured out Legacy was captured, it was too chaotic for disassociation. Most of them have deployed the hyperspace blockers, too. Organize the liberation campaign as you wish.”

“General?”

“The Resistance is yours, now, General,” she said. “You do not need me. In fact, you do not want me. The galaxy will not be receptive to leadership by the daughter of Darth Vader and the mother of Kylo Ren. My Senate career proved as much.”

“What will you be doing?”

Nog answered the question. “The Enterprise will be staying here. For now, she’s still too much power for our galaxy. I am going back, but Starfleet will be establishing a permanent presence. Plans are already underway. We’re calling it Deep Space Twelve.”

“A space station?”

“Large one,” Nog said. “It’s not intended as a colony or a point of exploitation, so the personnel will be mixed, right up to the senior command staff. Admiral Riker approved the provisional assignment. Admiral Ferraro will be the station commander, with General Leia as her XO.”

Captain–or, rather, Admiral Ferraro turned her head in the bridge chair. “Sir? Are you serious?”

“You do not want this?”

“Of course I do! But… there is a personal matter.”

“Rose.” Lieutenant Commander Paige Tico drifted over from the science station.

“She’s family, even if she doesn’t think so. And if the way to avoid hurting her is to be absent, than that’s what we’ll do.”

“That is… not necessary, Mom. She… is used to me, at least, now. And you can see each other as much or as little as you want. Finn remains captain of Absolution, and she’s staying with him. I might ask for an assignment there too, if they decide they need me.”

“I’ll need to talk to Ro, but if she’s alright with it, or bringing Dale her, I’ll accept.”

“Which leaves us with the last decision to make,” Nog said.

Gazes crossed over the room. Leia knew she had to be the one to voice the issue. “Ben,” she said.

 

14​

“Look at you,” Blair sat down across from Ruffel. “Major Daari. Congratulations.”

The Duros woman produced a cursory glance at her shoulder, where a silver square replaced the three triangles. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel. None of this would have happened without the war, and of course everyone is talking about nepotism–”

“Nepotism was the starting opportunity, you know that. And that eventually, you’ll outrank everyone. You can’t help that, Princess.”

“You are a strange bunch, Starfleet.”

“I haven’t been Starfleet for a long time, but I will take the compliment.”

“Can’t you go back, now that there’s contact with your Federation?”

“Again, I lived more of my life out of the Federation than in. And I haven’t left anything behind that I am desperate to return to. Why do you think I wasn’t on the Vicksburg in the first place when they attempted it?”

“So what will you do?”

Caruthers smirked. “Someone has been listening to me rant about the Lammo Hegemony.”

“There is no more Lammo Hegemony.”

“Indeed. Thanks to your father. There is a question of what to do with the planets and the people besides just declaring them part of the Kingdom. Like I said, someone made sure the King heard how much I despise the Lammos for what they did to their own people. And the King decided I might be a good choice to fix that damage. Any idea who that might have been, Princess?”

Ruffel laughed. “Is the King wrong?”

“Maybe,” Caruthers answered. “Whoever is responsible, it’s work for decades to come. If you’re asking if I will take it… I will. I’ve been frustrated with Lammo–and frankly, with the New Republic for failing to do something about it–for too long to actually miss out on the chance. I have every confidence I will leave things better than I found them, but that’s a very low bar. Eventually historians will decide whether I was the best choice. Maybe by the time your grandchild is on the throne.”

“You think that will happen? Or will the galaxy be plunged into another cataclysm?”

“Both can happen, you know. But yes, I do. I know a lot about King Gelemod, and now I know his heir reasonably well. So what’s in your immediate future?”

“For now, executive officer of Covenant. Maybe we’ll even visit the Federation sometime.”

“Good for you. Lots of work… but it will be good to improve things for once rather than just holding back disasters.” She raised her glass. “To the Kingdom. To the Federation. To purging the memory of the Lammo Hegemony.”

XXX​

Ben Solo woke up and jerked at the unfamiliar surroundings. He was no longer in a Federation brig, but in a bunk on an unfamiliar ship. Sitting next to the bed were his mother, Rey, and an elderly, though still spry, Togruta he didn’t know.

“What’s going on?”

“Technically, you’ve escaped custody,” Rey smirked. “As a guardian of peace and justice, my duty is to bring you in.”

“I’ve seen their security. Alerts everywhere.”

“We’ve… deceived them,” Leia said. “For a while, at least.”

“Why?”

“If you remain here, and submit to a Republic court, once there is a Republic again,” Leia answered, “you will almost certainly be executed. Especially since there’s talk of making Ryloth the first provisional capital.”

“Could you do something about it?”

“Probably. Would you want me to? Any prison is bound to have assassins, and you without the Force…”

“That is permanent, isn’t it?”

“I’m afraid so,” the Togruta spoke up. “Ahsoka Tano. I’ve gone through the same process thirty years ago, when the Vicksburg first arrived in our galaxy. Accidental, in my case. I’ve routinely diagnosed myself since. Midichlorian count, zero.”

“Midichlorian?” Rey asked.

“Later,” Ahsoka said. “Another option is you can request asylum with the Federation. They have no death penalty, you’ll be in relative comfort, though monitored, and you will be among people with no reason to hate you.”

“Not much to do, though,” Rey said. “At least, that’s how I see it.”

“Which brings us to this alternative,” Leia said. “Ahsoka has been wandering the galaxy for decades, never staying in any one place, but taking opportunities to help the less fortunate. She’s willing to take you on as a companion.”

“Things are going to get difficult soon,” she warned. “Force withdrawal isn’t to be taken lightly. I’m the only one who really knows what it’s like.”

“I can forgive you, Ben,” Leia said. “But the galaxy isn’t even willing to forgive me, and I’m just a daughter of Vader, not the man himself.”

Ben nodded. “I understand.”

“This way, we can see each other every once in a while.”

“I’d like that. And I suppose, I’ll eventually be a clear object lesson to future Jedi you’ll be training?” he nodded at Rey.

“I didn’t think of that,” she admitted. “Maybe.”

“I suppose it is the best. Just… may I ask why?”

“Why what?”

He turned to Tano. “You have no reason to help me.”

She smiled. “Don’t be so sure. Your family has made me who I am.”

“What?” both Leia and Ben exclaimed. “You never told me anything.”

“In the rebellion, I didn’t know. From what I heard, you didn’t know either. And then I was mostly out of touch.”

“Didn’t know what?”

“I was raised as a Jedi in the Old Republic,” she said. “And then I was made an apprentice… Padawan, we called them… to Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker.”

XXX​

“Perfect,” Rey said after a long pause.

“You really think it’s a good idea?”

She nodded. “I feel it in the Force. And think about it. A mobile Jedi Academy solves so many problems. We can easily visit important sites of Jedi history, carry help anywhere, and retreat if there’s ever too big a threat. We can’t isolate ourselves. We are not apart or above the galaxy, we are part of it. And Absolution was already a training vessel, so it’s easier to adapt than a captured Destroyer from a combat fleet.”

“And once we upgrade her with the warp drive, we can go transgalactic,” Paige Tico’s eyes gleamed. “Real exploration. Starfleet officers will be clawing to serve here.”

“So the crew won’t be dominated by any one faction,” Rose nodded.

Finn’s comlink chirped. “Yes?”

“Sir, a visitor has requested to see you. She wants to enlist in the crew. Says she’ll accept any position, but, says, and I quote, ‘I am well-qualified for a post of high responsibility’.”

Rey and Finn glanced at each other, and then at the Ticos. “Interesting,” Rose said.

“Danger?” Finn asked.

“Don’t rely on me too much,” Rey cautioned. “I’m not a perfect sensor in this regard. But I don’t feel hostility now.”

The door opened, admitting their visitor. “General Jade!” Finn exclaimed.

“Not anymore, I’m afraid,” she said. “King Gelemod dismissed me from the Royal Duros Army.”

“But you were right!” Paige exclaimed. “Daar–”

“General Daar,” Jade corrected.

“–blew up himself, the First Order fleet, and half the system because he wouldn’t listen to you.”

“All true,” she acknowledged. “Daar would have been court-martialed had he lived. The problem is, all the Duros fleet would have obeyed him over me, except possibly the Covenant. He was the senior general. I needed orders from a higher authority, and we had no long-range comms with Duro. So I faked a report of the King’s death, and got Princess Ruffel to assume the role of Queen. I would be a hero of Duro if the King had really died. Probably would hold Daar’s job now. But King Gelemod is alive, and I cannot be trusted. This is the sort of deception you pull off once. No one is really happy–not me, not the King, and not the Princess. But I would really be a useless head of intelligence. The King would need to check every piece of information I give him. When you do that, you might as well put the people doing the checking in charge.”

“Right,” Finn said. “Why us?”

“First, the way Admiral Nog described it, you’ve got a very interesting endeavor going on here. I doubt I’d find anything of the sort as a private citizen on Duro. And second, apparently I have the potential to be a Jedi.”

“You do,” Rey said.

“Well, then I want to make something of it. I would never have time for such a commitment while still an officer of the Royal Duros Army. But I can now.”

“I’m not asking for a command position, or anything like that. I’d be willing to enlist as a tech specialist or even security grunt. But a good commanding officer should know his subordinates’ talents and not waste them.”

“You know, it’s odd. I haven’t yet appointed an executive officer, and for now, we four,” he gestured, “are the senior crew. I’ve no doubt any of you could do it, but you’re also much better off where you are now. Rose in engineering, Paige doing the science, and Rey with the Jedi stuff. And here you show up.”

“It might be the will of the Force.”

“That’s not how the Force works!” Rose and Finn exclaimed at once.

“Sorry, guys. You’re wrong on that one,” Rey smiled. “Welcome aboard, Mara Jade. That’s exactly how the Force works.”

 

Epilogue
​

Cindy sor Valetta walked down the settlement’s main throughway hand in hand with her husband. “Did we do the right thing?”

“You won’t renege now, dear. Why torment yourself?”

“Funny. We know what’s to come, and none of the decisions are any easier.”

Rieekan considered. “I’m not exactly thrilled, either.”

“Particularly with all the snark. If I hear someone call me ‘Majesty’ one more time…”

She stopped. “Something wrong?”

“I don’t believe it.”

“What?”

“We didn’t build that.”

“‘The Captain’s Table’, the Alliance general read. "No… what is it?”

“You can see it?”

“Yeah. Looks like everything else we improvised here. But no, from the plans I recall, there’s nothing there.”

“You must have had a ship command sometime,” she said. “Before we met.”

“I did. Crevasse City. We had to scrap her after Scarif.”

“Well, then we can go in together.” She smiled. “I’m not sure what we’ll find.”

What she found as soon as they entered was a tight embrace. “Cindy!” Thanya Ferraro exclaimed. “We won!”

“Hi,” Blair Caruthers said, with Princess Ruffel by her side as before.

“I don’t understand.”

The two members of her old crew, now captains in their own right, turned heads. “We’ve spoken.”

“This is my first time at the Table since we’ve left our galaxy,” sor Valetta said.

“Why are you surprised?” A Ferengi strode up. “Admiral Nog, Captain. You know time doesn’t flow the same way everywhere even in normal space. And the Table is a force all its own. If you’ve met Cindy here, that doesn’t mean she met you. Yet.”

“Quite right,” someone else approached. “These guys tend to be circumspect with me, which makes me think they know something of my future. But the owner won’t let me know. Frustrating–”

“Han Solo,” Rieekan said. “If anyone can circumvent the rules…”

“So do we get to hear what happened to you?” Ferarro asked. “I mean, after our experiment went awry thanks to Voss Torel.”

Cindy and Carlist exchanged a look. “We’d better,” she said. “This needs a stiff drink, though. "Tequila, I think.”

A glass quickly appeared in her hand. “After the surge wrecked our tractor beam projector, severing our hold on the McPherson with you aboard, the Vicksburg lost control for a little…”

XXX​

Ruby Blake felt a jolt and flung open her eyes. She shivered as she realized that her uniform was soaking wet with icy water, as was her face, hair, and half body.

A loud splash from her right caused her to turn, and instinctively try to leap forward. Both her legs and arms were restrained though, preventing her from attacking Voss Torel. The Imperial agent tossed aside a bucket and looked down as Ahsoka Tano, just as wet as her, stirred into consciousness.

“Wake up, you idiots,” he greeted. “I know you can escape, but it will take you a few seconds, which gives me the opportunity to bring our predicament to your attention.” He pointed forward. Blake realized they were in the main lounge of the Vicksburg, which was the only common space onboard to have an actual viewport.

“We’re deorbiting,” Blake said.

“Power’s out on this rustbucket. So is most of the crew. Now, I’m certain that if dear Captain sor Valetta was here, she’d be thrilled to know I’m aboard and am about to die.”

“That’s—”

He laughed. “Your captain has a death wish. Everything she did here says so. Enough. I don’t have a death wish, so rebel scum or not, we’re on the same side.”

“Ever consider being more polite?” Ahsoka snapped.

“Honesty over manners, Jedi Tano,” he retorted. “I want to use the Force to slow down the ship’s descent so it isn’t destroyed in the crash. Two people working together have a better chance than one—so that’s what you’re here for. Three would have been better, but your misfortune is not a mystery to me, despite your attempts. Still, you may be able to instruct her better than I.”

“And if we refuse?” Blake demanded.

“You’re Jedi. You won’t.”

“I’m no Jedi.”

He didn’t bother with words, and only looked at Ahsoka. “Better decide quick. We’re almost at the atmosphere.”

“You expect us to do it while tied up?”

“So you are in?”

“Fine,” Blake grunted. “You’re wrong about the captain, and I’m certainly not going to sacrifice the whole crew just to kill you.”

“Thank you,” Torel hissed out slowly, before activating the lightsaber embedded in his prosthetic and making two strokes to cut the Jedi’s restraints. Ahsoka rose, stretched out and then motioned for the other two to approach the viewport.

They sat down on the deck, cross-legged, in a circle and joined hands. Blake expected a turmoil of nasty emotions to emanate from Torel, but instead, was barely able to register his presence. He was suppressing things, and in another surprise, she actually felt Ahsoka’s thoughts, though they were much hazier than Torel’s. Still, they could get the sense of direction from her, and Ruby and Torel poured their own strength together and strained to make the fall slower.

Fire blazed outside the viewport as the Vicksburg‘s altitude turned to heat. The ice water in which the Imperial soaked them quickly stopped producing shivers and was soon joined by warm sweat form all three of them. It wasn’t just that, absent life support, the outside heat was heating up the inside; the nearly constant employment of the Force was work, taking its tall on the three of them. No one talked, no one dared make a breath out of sync from the others.

“About to impact!” Ruby gasped out as her connection with the Force tingled from the ground approaching. Stupid, really. Both her companions, with their vastly greater experience, would have felt it long before she did.

The crash made them all lose balance and roll about on the deck. The motion continued, but far less smooth as Vicksburg wrecked various obstacles while sliding across the ground at more than a hundred clicks per hour.

Ruby rose to look around when the viewport shattered, shards flying everywhere, and a tree trunk sped across the lounge. She barely had time to see where it was going, cried out “No!” and lifted her hand to push the former Jedi out of the way…

Too late. Ahsoka, more exhausted than the other two, and without access to the Force, couldn’t react in time either. The tree smashed her body and kept going before plastering her against the bulkhead, producing an explosion of blood and flesh, some of it splattering on her.

The ship lost all its momentum twenty seconds later. Tears, sweat, and blood mixing on her face, Ruby rose once more and, with an absurd hope, walked across the tilting deck to Ahsoka’s body. An arm was sticking out from under the tree trunk. She felt it. No pulse. She pulled, and it came out, severed above the elbow.

Catching a movement with her peripheral vision, she leapt up. Torel was standing next to the broken viewport, looking outside. Sunlight, splotchy because it was coming through a canopy of leaves, filled the Vicksburg’s lounge. More trees rose ahead of them.

“Where the hell were you?” Blake demanded. “You saw that tree coming! You could have saved her!”

“I didn’t see it in time.”

And he was lying. She didn’t know what made her certain—the Force, probably. Certainly not her own mind; she wanted very much for his failure to save Ahsoka to be a case of bad luck and not a choice she’d just seen him make. But Imperial to the last, he treated Ahsoka exactly as you would expect to treat an enemy. Kill them as soon as their use to you was done.

A lightsaber found its way into her hand almost of its own accord. Igniting it, she marched towards Torel in fury. He only shook his head.

“I’m afraid this will have to wait,” he said, and jumped out the viewport. She heard a rustling impact below, but by the time she got close enough to look down, he was gone. She tried feeling the Force. Lots of life, but nothing specifically Torel.

When the tractor beam connection between the two ships had snapped, the shock made almost all the crew lose consciousness—as, in fact, Ahsoka and Ruby had, having been forced out of it by Torel’s intervention. As the rest of them woke up and began organizing, eventually, Ruby was found by Evaan Verlaine, sobbing over what remained of Ahsoka.

Ruby didn’t remember that. Evaan silently pulled her into an embrace and let her collapse in grief and fatigue before picking her up and carrying her to sickbay.

XXX​

“Nine hundred and fifty-seven remaining,” Raya summarized. “Lost eighty-five.”

“Any hope of fixing her?” Captain sor Valetta pointed at the Vicksburg lying on her side with a kilometer-long stretch of mowed-down forest behind.

“Not likely,” Rieekan commented with a sad smile. “Even if this planet has a working shipyard, which doesn’t seem likely, all of us together can’t drag it.”

“How’s Ruby?”

“Still in an induced coma. Dr. Shar insists on at least another day before trying to restore consciousness. Verlaine refuses to leave her bedside.”

“Let her,” sor Valetta said. “Shipyard, hell—what do we know about this planet?”

“Pretty much what we see right now, unfortunately,” Raya said. “The sensors were down during descent; I can’t even tell you if we’re on a continent, a large island, or a landmass covering the whole planet.”

“No working shuttles?”

“Wrecked in the crash.”

Cindy signed. “Carlist… this is going to come up if we’re stuck here. With the ship gone, there’s no basis for my being in charge. Not everyone here is part of my crew, and in the Alliance, you outrank me.”

Raya snorted. “Is this really the time, your majesties?”

That produced several laughs. “If we contact either the Alliance or the Federation,” Rieekan said, “it will be moot. If we can’t, we’ll need to organize on a new basis anyway.”

Raya and Cindy exchanged looks when the general mentioned the Federation. “You think we could be back in our galaxy?” the security chief asked.

“We’re not,” a new voice interrupted.

“Lieutenant Deeta?”

“Yes, ma'am,” the Rodian approached. “I’ve found where we are.”

“How?”

“Astromech droids. One we had got a small glimpse during our fall, and I’ve had them observe the star patterns last night. It’s not as complete a picture as we would get from orbit—”

“But you got enough?”

“Yes. First—we’re still in our galaxy.”

Raya sighed. “Oh, well.”

“Second, the star pattern produced no exact matches, although one location came close.”

“We’re in an unknown system, then?” Rieekan concluded.

“No, General. From no location in our galaxy can you actually observe this pattern. That’s why it took me so long—I had to get the search parameters right to understand what was happening. And then I didn’t believe the answer I got, so I ran the data again.”

“And you got the same answer.”

Deeta nodded. “You’re not going to believe me, either. The astrogational data says we’re on Coruscant.”

Rieekan managed to suppress a burst of laughter. Sor Valetta, with neither personal experience nor cultural context to associate with the name, merely raised her eyebrows. “Doesn’t look like the holos I’ve seen,” Raya stated flatly.

“I still don’t understand,” sor Valetta said. “I thought you discovered no location is like this?”

“Not on the current charts. But stars move, so these patterns change over time.”

The captain’s eyes instantly flung open. “I don’t like where this is going.”

“Yes, but to be noticeable, it has to be a long time,” Raya said.

Deeta nodded. “And this explains everything. We are on Coruscant. Coruscant as it was SIXTY THOUSAND YEARS AGO.”

“You’re saying we traveled back in time? That’s impossible.”

It was sor Valetta who had to suppress laughter. “Oh, it’s very possible. And you know what—if I we had the Vicksburg operational, I’d get us back.”

“But we’re not going to get the Vicksburg operational,” Deeta said.

“What makes you so certain?”

“While we were in the void,” Deeta softly began, and sor Valetta inwardly cursed herself. No one wanted to relieve those dreadful months. “I’ve been reading through your libraries. Histories, entertainment, science… and right there in the open was the answer to a great mystery.”

“What?”

“One with a lot of speculation behind it and very little data. The origin of Humans in our galaxy. Historical records made it clear that it was somewhere in the Core, with Coruscant, Alderaan, and Corellia being the most common contenders. Or the ones with the loudest partisans.”

“But you said there wasn’t much data.”

“Alderaan and Corellia have archeological sites of about the same age. Everything on Coruscant is buried. But there is no evidence of actual Human evolution on any of them. And now it’s clear why.” Deeta sounded animated now. “I could never have published anything of the sort under the Empire.”

“As a Rodian commenting on human history?” Raya asked.

“And the very premise,” Deeta answered. “That Humans didn’t evolve on any planet in this galaxy. They evolved in yours. On Earth.”

“That’s not news to anyone here,” Blake said.

“It was to me, and the evidence was beyond anything any candidate planet here had. The fossil finds. The DNA reconstructions. The fauna of your homeworld, with creatures like chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans still extant only two centuries ago.”

Tears welled up in both womens’ eyes. “There’s a reminder I didn’t expect,” sor Valetta said.

“The lack of evidence was why Coruscant was the most commonly held opinion. But it was still just an opinion. Until now. Now it’s fact.”

“But you just said humans didn’t evolve on Coruscant,” Raya protested.

“They didn’t. But in this galaxy, Coruscant is the human homeworld. Or rather, it will be.”

The realization hit first the captain and then, almost simultaneously, both Raya and Rieekan. “OH…” they said in unison. “OH.”

“That’s why you say we won’t restore the Vicksburg and leave. That would change the past. We are the past.”

XXX​

“What did the captain say that got you all teared up?” Verlaine asked as she and Ruby got ready for the night. They’d been on the planet two days now, and this afternoon, sor Valetta gathered the entire crew, praised them for their hard work, and then informed them of Deeta’s discovery and what it entailed. The discussion on the implication of their time travel had lasted for hours afterwards, despite that for most Stafleet officers, it was well-treaded ground.

“Oh. The apes.” Ruby had to control herself to keep from crying again. Verlaine saw that many Earth natives had trouble containing their sorrow at a very specific point in sor Valetta’s speech that didn’t seem all that unusual to her.

“The what?”

“Great apes. A couple of species very closely related to humans—diverged between five and ten million years ago. And now they’re all gone. We killed them.”

“What do you mean?”

“We as in humans. It’s been going on for centuries… habitat destruction, outright hunting… not a proud chapter in Earth’s history. By the time enough people saw the danger and took action, there were too few of them left to survive unassisted. Then World War III happened, and the assistance stopped.”

Ruby pulled out her PADD and showed her girlfriend several flat images of large hairy primates. “After Zephram Cochrane and First Contact, there were proposals to use cloning and other techniques to recreate the apes. Forbidding this was one of the first acts of the United Earth government.”

“Why?”

“So that the impact would last and remain for the future generations. ‘Oh, we can just fix our mistakes.’ No. Not all of them. Seems to work—even generations later, as you saw today. It certainly impacted me when I had that lesson in school.”

“And that law is still in force?”

“Oh, you get repeal proposals every fifty years or so—and the arguments made at the time are rehashed. But I think there’s a general consensus that even if we do it, the creatures we make won’t be the apes. They’ll be artificial constructs made by us for us—and presenting them as anything else will simply be fraud. If you want the visual experience, there are holodecks—and being aware it’s not real is another reminder.”

“You are very unusual,” Verlaine said. “Well, you personally are—but so are your people. Many would just declare that they are not responsible for what their ancestors did and leave it at that.”

“Responsible? No. But we must not repeat their mistakes, and for that, we must know what they were—and, since we are not Vulcans for whom logic is sufficient, we must feel those mistakes. Funnily,” she commented off-hand, “I’ve never seen anyone deliberately distance themselves from any triumphs of their ancestors.”

She looked up into the night sky. “I’m still looking for the constellations I learned as girl—and of course, failing.”

Verlaine reached around her from behind. “If this is where it all begins… will you continue learning about the Force? Are you the first Jedi?”

“Not much of one.”

“It’s alright,” she whispered. “Torel isn’t much of a Sith.”

 

Whoa. That is deep.

 

What part, specifically? The entire story, the time loop, or the stuff about the apes?

 

The time loop and the stuff about the apes.