Cloak and Shadows 6

A billion thoughts crashed through my head in the space of the time it took Thrawn to switch on the lights, get out of bed and assess the situation. Most of them had to do with my seeming inability to defend myself. I had been trained in the Bunduki arts, I was a force user and had been taught to fight by some of the best and the most brutal teachers this galaxy had to offer, so why was it that the moment some creature with a grip of dura-steel grabbed me I panicked or at least froze. The first thing I did was try to get my heart rate and breathing back down to a sane level. The creature that held me could break my bones as easily as Lord Vader could force choke a room full of idiots. There wasn’t much use in struggling further.

“Release her.” Thrawn spoke quietly but there was such ice, such command in his voice that I wasn’t certain who I should be more afraid of, him or the alien who held me in the death grip from hell.

“Now.” Thrawn insisted calmly. “I shall not ask you again.”

The creature did as he was asked and Thrawn pulled me towards him to shield me with his body.

“Are you alright?” he asked. He looked at my throat and I suspected from the dull pain that I would have bruises there. For once, I thought, they could not be blamed on Lord Vader.

I nodded and swallowed. My knees were still shaky but that would pass. “Who…what is this?” I asked.

Thrawn drew a deep breath. “This is Rukh.” He said coolly. He was angry, angrier than I had seen him in some time. “Rukh is a Noghri warrior assigned by Lord Vader to protect me.”

I looked at the Noghri called Rukh, who simply stared at me and then I looked back at Thrawn. He was naked. “You should get dressed and put shoes on; there are glass shards on the floor.” I said. Before either of them could say anything else I left the cabin.

The adrenaline that had flooded through my system receded and left me cold with anger. Thrawn had not seemed in the least bit surprised by the Noghri’s presence which led me to believe he had known the creature was on board my ship and he had not told me. I stopped at the galley, filled up a large cup with the rest of the spiced coffee then I made my way calmly to the cockpit, closed the door and locked it. I needed some time to calm down and think and this was the one place that was mine and mine alone. I sat for a very long time just staring out of the window cradling the warm cup in my cold hands, trying to sort through this latest incident and my seeming inability to defend myself. It was depressing. For over three years I had been training and I still could not seem to get it right when someone grabbed me. I doubted that, given the strength I had felt from the Noghri I would have been able to break free from his grip even if I had tried but that didn’t change how ineffectual I felt now.

A knock at the door broke my thoughts. I ignored it.

“A’myshk’a…?” Thrawn asked.

My answer, in his language, was very rude.

I could sense his frustration mixed with concern. “Open the door, please.” He tried again.

I repeated my previous statement. There was a lengthy silence and I thought that maybe he’d actually done as I had told him for once. Maybe he would leave me in peace to calm down but no, that was not the case. Instead he had used his official override code and unlocked the cockpit door. Opened it, walked in then closed it again. I could feel him stand directly behind me but I didn’t turn to look at him.

“Get out.” I wondered if the tone of my voice matched the icy fury in my veins.

“I need to know that you are unharmed.” He said quietly.

“I’m fine. Go away!”

“I know you are angry with me but I am not responsible for this.” He said maintaining the same calm quiet tone.

I drew a deep steadying breath and had to relax the grip of death I was inflicting on my cup. I heard him move to come and crouch down at the side of the chair. The nav computer peeped letting me know we would be coming out of hyperspace soon.

“Tekari, look at me.” He said. When my jaw clenched and I did not move he added, “Please?”

So I did as he asked. “Where is your friend?” I growled.

“Back aft.” He said.

I nodded and went back to staring out of the window. “Keep him the hell away from me.”

He reached out to touch my face but I pulled away from him. “You should have told me he was on board.” I said coldly.

“I did not know he was on the ship. I was under the impression he had remained on board the Admonitor. If I had known so would you.” Thrawn spoke to me the way Navaari had, in that steady calm voice which soothed timid creatures and fractious children.

“How is that possible?” I asked angrily. “You know everything! Prepared for every, any and all eventualities! How could you not know this?” I was being nasty but I didn’t really care.

He sighed and got up to sit in the co pilot’s chair across from me. “Lord Vader was pleased with the work that I accomplished on Corellia, as part of a reward if you like, he has given me command of the Noghri, a race of beings most efficient in the warrior arts and quite deadly as commandos. He introduced me to Rukh earlier, before we left this morning.” He paused to look at me, I ignored this. “I agreed to take Rukh on as a bodyguard and I thought I had made it clear that he was to remain on board the Admonitor. I was obviously mistaken. I am sorry.”

“Since when do you need a body guard?” I asked.

“I don’t believe I do, but these Noghri believe in a form of life debt and they apparently feel they owe it to the Empire, especially to Lord Vader who convinced them this passes on to me. You know as well as I do that respect for other cultures is tantamount to maintaining law and order. It would have been imprudent to dismiss their beliefs and their service.”

“Well your body guard just tried to kill me.” I said coldly.

“He was doing his job. You entered the room without turning on the lights. He thought you were going to assassinate me.”

I narrowed my eyes and glared at him. “Maybe next time I’ll try that instead of bringing you spiced coffee!”

He sighed. “How many times shall I apologise for this before you back down?”

I shook my head. “Just go away.”

“A’myshk’a…” He drew a deep breath and I could feel him struggle to keep his own temper in check.

“Blast it all to Corellia’s nine hells and back! I don’t need this crap when I am piloting. I do not need this stress because travelling with you is stressful enough! That… that… Noghri tried to kill me. He is not welcome on my ship so get him off it!”

“And just how am I supposed to do that? Toss him out the nearest air lock?” Thrawn's tone had gone from concerned to cold.

“That would be one way.” I replied. I watched as we slid out of hyperspace into normal space. The next jump would be a lot longer and follow a standard shipping lane, but we would have to fly for half an hour to get to the right hyper point. I set the co-ordinates into the nav computer and engaged the autopilot.

“You are not being reasonable.” He said crossly.

“Reasonable? Some alien I have never seen before in my life, that I did not even know was on board my shuttle just tried to strangle me for bringing you a glass of spice coffee and you tell me I am not being reasonable? Get him off my ship, confine him to the cargo hold, or tie him up with pipe tape for all I care! Do what ever it is you need to do to keep him away from me, because if he comes at me again I will chop his head off with my lightsaber or die trying! Am I making myself clear?” I asked getting up. I knew he was right but I was just too angry to want to see reason.

I brushed passed him but he caught my arm with a steel grip that bordered on painful. Whatever he had to say next he was making sure I would not just hear it but listen as well.

“If I had known he was on board I would have told you.” He said very calmly. He was now angry with me rather than anything else. “I would have made it perfectly clear to him that you are not out to kill me and that if I am under his protection then so are you. Do you really think I would have withheld this information from you?”

I glared at him. “I don’t know! With you I never know!” I said. “Damn it I have enough complications in my life as it without you and your new pet adding to them! Now will you get the hell out of my cockpit?!”

“Merlyn, please…” he started. He never called me by my first name unless he was being formal or he was annoyed with me. In this case the latter was the reason. I was testing his patience to the bitter end.

I stamped my foot down hard on the floor. “NO! NO! NO! This is not acceptable, no! I want that …that…bodyguard-warrior-Noghri-creature- whatever off my…”

I never got to finish my sentence because suddenly there was a huge BOOM as an explosion blasted the port side of the ship, rocking the shuttle violently. Alarms and lights started going off and flashing madly. If Thrawn had not been holding my arm I would have been flung backwards. I grabbed hold of his chair as he let go of my arm to scan the instrument panel.

I scrambled back into my chair and strapped in. “Now what!” I hissed crossly. “Did we hit something?”

“No, that was blaster fire.” He told me. He activated the shields and I said a silent prayer that what ever had hit us hadn’t hit anything vital.

“Blaster fire??” If I hadn’t been angry before now I was. I scanned the systems readout but nothing serious had been hit or compromised. We had been lucky.

The shuttle was rocked by a second volley of fire.

“Affirmative. Blasts hit us port-side aft, nothing significant was damaged. Shields are holding.” Thrawn told me. He was setting up tactical even before I had to ask, transferring the gun controls to his consol.

“Someone is shooting at us? There is nothing registering, no proximity alert nothing on the scans….Who…what the hell is shooting at us?”

A third blast shook the ship and I heard the engines whine, just a little, from the power drain of the shields.

“Whoever it is is still attacking us port side aft. Shields are now at ninety percent. They have better guns.” He said as dryly as if he were commenting on a news net article.

“You strapped in?” I asked taking us off auto pilot.

“Yes what did you…?”

“Hang on!” I yanked hard as I could on the throttle and sent us into a wide arcing loop. The shuttle’s engines protested but I knew what she was capable of. “Find whatever it is that is shooting at us! I take it you know how to work the guns on this thing?”

“Yes.”

The gravity plating and inertial dampers compensated for the sudden motion but not quite fast enough to offset the sense of spin. I hated sudden rotation like this it always made me queasy which was why I would never have made a good fighter pilot. I gritted my teeth and hoped for the best. The shuttle wasn’t designed to be flung about like a TIE fighter or an X-Wing.

“Well?” I asked as a volley of laser fire sliced past the nose of the shuttle by millimetres.

“Nothing, according to the scans we are completely alone.”

“Okay well your aloneness is trying to kill us.” I sent us barrel rolling to the starboard, shutting my eyes tightly as we did so.

“I know you are cross with me right now, but I need you to take orders from me and not be stubborn or argumentative, can you do that?”

“Will it make them stop shooting at us?” I asked as I began to compensate for the next spin.

“Yes.”

“Then you are in charge, Admiral.”

“Bank hard to port on my command.” He said. I glanced at him and wondered what he had in mind. “Now!”

I pulled to port hard and Thrawn fired a series of shots that arced as we banked. The last shot hit something.”

“Hard to starboard now.” He said. I marvelled at his calm. My heart was in my throat. I did as he said and my stomach lurched. The engines whined and the ship shuddered. He shot again and again the last set of laser bolts hit something. I watched in amazement as out of the nothingness a ship began to decloak then was suddenly invisible again.

“On my mark pull up hard, loop wide then hard roll to starboard.”

“Aye.”

“Mark.”

I did as he asked and watched as he fired the aft canon but before I could express my elation that we had maybe won we were once again hit by a volley of fire and the shields fluttered.

“What ever is shooting at us will take out our shields if they keep hitting us like that!” I told him.

“Micro jump.” He said. “We need to get out of here now!”

“What? Are you out of your mind? You can’t micro jump in this thing!!! ” I yelled at him. I had never actually done a micro jump, they were almost unheard of.

“Give my full control now!” He ordered. Another blast hit us starboard side and the shields dropped to forty percent. The shield generator couldn’t get enough power fast enough to regenerate the shields to full.

I did as he asked then watched as he manually set the spatial co ordinates and then punched the hyperdrive. The stars elongated and twisted in a way I had never seen before and then suddenly we were back in normal space. A blow out showered sparks from the main control panel and alarms shrilled out in protest of the treatment of the shuttle. I clapped a hand over my mouth and forced my lunch to stay put.

“Wow!” I said when I found my voice. “You so need to teach me that trick.”

“Next time, I’ll talk you through it.” He replied tersely.

“Bloody better not be a next time!” I started running through a systems check and looked over at Thrawn who frowned. “What? You have that look on your face.”

“Did you recognise that ship?” he asked me.

I shook my head. “No, I didn’t get a good look at her. Was she really cloaked? How is that possible? I thought cloaking technology on anything smaller than a dreadnought was a myth.”

He drew a deep breath. “Yes, she was cloaked and she is small and manoeuvrable. She was also, I believe, Imperial in design.”

“What?!” I almost exploded.

“What’s our status?” He ignored my question.

I blinked at him for a few seconds but he just gave me that one eyebrow higher than the other ‘answer my question’ stare. So I answered him. “Shields need time to regenerate and apart from some blown fuses we are actually in good shape. The Sigiri may be a milk run shuttle but she’s got teeth and a hard shell. How the hell did they find us, who the hell are they and why the hell were they shooting at us if they were Imperial?”

“Those are the questions aren’t they? Guess I will need to go for a little walk to find out.” he said getting up.

“What?”

“Do you recall the tracker we found on the Ahnkeli Su’udelma?”

“How could I forget?” I asked undoing the buckles and following him out of the cockpit and through the ship as he made his way aft.

“We will need to do a hull inspection. I think that someone has pulled the same trick on us.”

I sighed this explained why he had not gone into a longer hyperspace jump. If we had a homing device on our hull who ever it was would find us again no matter where we jumped to. “Then I guess it isn’t you going for a space walk it’s me.”

“A’myshk’a…” he started.

I put my hand on his arm. “You are far, far better at tactical than I ever could be. It’s not something I was ever trained for. If something goes wrong you can still get to the Derra System. I do the space walk; you stay here and keep me alive, that’s the deal.” I told him.

He made a face. “Do you even know what you are looking for?” he asked.

“Yes and the scanner I swiped…er… I mean borrowed, from the Admonitor will tell me how to find it.” I said. I could feel him about to protest but I stopped him. “You are the more valuable of the two of us so you stay on board. Unless you got word from Lord Vader to say otherwise I am still the pilot which sort of makes me the captain and since I am not actually in the navy you don’t get to outrank me which means I get final say. I walk, you stay here.”

“Your logic is a little flawed, tekari.” His voice was soft as he caressed my face.

“You know I am right.” I said. “How long do you think we have?”

“Not long, the jump was incredibly short but if this is what I think it is they cannot go into hyperspace with the cloak and if they are using some sort of transport ship to carry them into hyperspace she won’t be able to micro jump. They’ll have to find us sublight which means I bought us two maybe three hours at the most, depending on how fast the transports sublight engines are.”

“Okay, then that will have to do.” I nodded.

“You checked the suits and air before we left?” There was genuine concern in his eyes.

“Yes. I always do that.”

“Make sure you tether twice.”

I stopped and turned to look at him. “You know, while I have never done a micro jump before, I have done this. Trust me, I know how to handle myself EV.”

“Then why do you look like you are going to your death?”

“EVA sometimes makes me sick but there’s no time to find an antiemetic.” I said tersely. “Help me get into the suit; it’s good to have a second set of eyes check it. And keep your body guard away from me. I don’t think he’ll like it if I throw up on him.”