Gambit Inc. Part II

Only then did he glance out the cockpit transparisteel viewports. Despite his Jedi training and experience, what he saw caused his heart rate to increase, and he swallowed quickly.

“At least we’re alive, still.”

Without taking his gaze from the scene outside, Kr-Ant replied, “Glad you’re back up and running, too. Strap in and help me with the diagnostics.”

Floating forward, Orrell pulled himself down into his seat beside Kr-Ant. Activating his own consoles, the most urgent alert flashed at the top of the damage readout. “Considering that asteroid field out there, I’d say we were pretty lucky. Aft hull armor is indicating a puncture, aft of the hyperdrive initiator, and the coolant lines have been pinched. The back-up hyperdrive appears okay, but the nav comp is still running its orientation computations. Which is odd. We must really be out in the boonies.”
Kr-Ant let Orrell ramble on, while he slowly steadied the heavy fighter’s multi-axis wobble. Gently easing in the maneuvering thrusters, the spinning slowed, and then stopped. Out of the right side, the Jedi suddenly spotted something that he had not noticed before, despite his force attenuation. “Okay, so where are we? I’ve got no threats on the sensors, but I’m bringing the combat systems online.”

“Nav comp still can’t make up its mind. That’s definitely not Gamorr; according to the calculations, we are further out towards the rim.”

“Well, let’s check it out. There’s something a little…..off, with this place.” And grabbing the throttle and control stick, Kr-Ant eased the throttle up slowly, and began picking his way through the massive asteroid field, to the planet floating beyond.

As they finally cleared the field, and passed near to a cluster of larger asteroids, four small fighters suddenly surrounded them. At the same time, a stern voice came over the common frequency, “Unidentified craft, you will power down your weapons, and follow us. Do you copy?”

Activating their comms, Kr-Ant replied, “Affirmative. Mind answering a few questions though?” While waiting for a response, Kr-Ant dumped all canon weapon energy into the shield secondary capacitors, effectively boosting them to two hundred percent of normal.

“We are Soma III security, and you will follow us down to the planet for processing,” was the terse reply.

Orrell commented quietly to Kr-Ant, “Processing, eh. I’m not sure I like the sound of that. At least we have a nav reference point now. I’m plotting an emergency hyperspace route out.”

“Wait,” the Jedi replied. “Just…..wait. There is some sort of force static around this planet. I can’t sense anything specific, either people or other biologicals. It’s definitely there, just that I can’t focus.” Glancing over at his companion, he grinned, “It would make a great place for Jedi to hide.”

*****
Processing merely entailed a brief and polite questioning period by the Dure-Lite port authorities, and then the two newcomers were free to leave. Returning to the small quarantine space dock, and their damaged prototype, Orrell began compiling a list of parts and things to do.

Grunting every once in a while against the heavier gravity, “I’m not sure what we can find here, but I’ll repair what I can. I can’t repair the main hyperdrive though; it’s melted beyond repair. I’ll need you to track down a replacement. Here’s a list of the minimum and maximum specifications that you’ll have to watch.”

Kr-Ant nodded, “Watch your back. I need to observe more of the locals to refocus my force senses, I think. I should only be gone a couple hours. Keep your commlink handy, in case either of us gets into trouble. Though, it looks like we have this spaceport pretty much to ourselves.”

“Good luck. Or should I say, ‘May the force be with you’?”

“It always is, even here.” And with that, Kr-Ant force-flipped over the permacrete security wall, and was gone. Orrell turned back to the heavy fighter, and began opening access panel after access panel, and reaching into his secret creation, making what repairs he could.

*****

As he wandered the streets, Kr-Ant passed another small building, when he unexpectedly detected a brief flash in the force. Careful to control his reaction, Kr-Ant stopped near a shop window, and scanned the area behind him both visually in the window’s reflection, and with the force. Gently at first, until he narrowed his search area. It was definitely coming from that building; it appeared to be a simple bar. And then, as quickly as it had appeared, the sensation was gone. Not just damped down or smothered, but completely gone.

Attempting to dampen his own force presence was difficult in this strange force static area, but he felt confident he was mostly successful. Only then did he turn around and slowly make his way towards the bar. Casually letting his left hand hang loosely near his hidden light saber, Kr-Ant stepped up to the door, and entered the darkened interior.

Glancing around causally before settling on a seat in the middle of the bar, Kr-Ant observed that most of the patrons were more concerned with their respective drinks than any newcomers, be they familiar or stranger. Requesting a simple water to start off with, Kr-Ant asked the bar tender if he might know of any reputable local starship parts dealers, or mechanics, and then specified he was looking for a hyperdrive replacement for a small ship.

After a moment’s silence, the bar tender grunted, “Maybe, but……..”

Kr-Ant silently slid several credits and the hyperdrive specs as provided by Orrell, over the counter casually. As the bar tender just as casually glanced down, Kr-Ant noticed his right eyebrow rise up just a little bit. Good, it was obviously a sufficient amount, but not too much to raise suspicions.

“Come back in a few hours, and I’ll see what I can come up with.”

Kr-Ant then ordered a mild local brew, and a short while later, left the darkened interior of the bar.

Returning to the small partitioned section of the spaceport the same way he left, he informed Orrell of the bartender’s comment.

“Well, I might as well come along with you, just in case there’s nothing exactly matching my specs.”

“Sounds fine. We still have about two hours, so we might as well get some more work done. What’s the ship’s status?”
*****