The Rescuer

Disclaimer: I own none of the cannon characters, planets or ships so you can bite my ass save for what I have come up with in mine own skull that rarely works even on the best days.

Chapter 2: A Tour, a Fight, and a Pit stop.


Aayla looked about the small bridge then back to the grinning Tavin. "You stole this ship didn't you?" The human winced a bit and replied "Stole is such a harsh word.....more like borrowed without asking for permission is more like what I would use. Anyways most of the people that work on this ship agreed that it was in the best interest of our former employers that we relieved them of this fine vessel." he pointed a few of his crew including Sorin that had brought the jedi to the bridge and spoke "Sorin here is my second in command, and so far he has not let me down, my nav officer Lucifer here is the best with our charts. She has even made some new hyperspace routes that while dangerous have shaved off alot of time on our runs. We found her on Taris as a slave. As a rule I abhor slavery, but I do not say anything if it is in my best interest to survive. Maybe she will tell you the story some time." The female Rodian waved at the Twi'lek then went back to watching her nav screen as Tavin pointed to his weapons officer. "Vertigo there used to live on Talus till he was hired on to work on this ships weapons, and when we borrowed the Idiot's Array he stayed on as our weapons officer." The big man nodded and grinned at the jedi and she turned to Tavin and asked. "What do you do?" to which the Captain replied "I double up on sensors as well as giving the orders. Right now since there is nothing to do I am free to give Sorin command of the Array, until we arrive at Kuat and take you milady on a tour of our ship." The compliment made the blue skinned twi'lek blush slightly and she slipped her arm though his when he offered, grinning widely as he lead her off the bridge.
Both walked down the corridors for a bit and he pointed out the various workings of the ship, including the class 1 hyperdrive they had taken off a derelict. To say the least she was awed by the power such a small ship held inside her hull. Eventually Tavin led her to a door which he opened and lead her inside. The room itself was rather large, and sported a queen sized bed along with a small work table, and a porthole that was large enough yet sturdy enough that it wouldn't decompress and the human spoke. "These will be your quarters, and I know you're what you're going to ask. Would it be possible to join my crew? The answer is yes. You get this room because of two reasons. One, I want you to lead my flight of fighters which will give you free reign over them. Two, beacause you are the flight leader, you will have an immdiate promotion to Lieutenant and as such you warrent quarters this large. Your neighbors on either side of you are Sorin and Lucifer, across the hall are myself and the next door over is Vertigo. The fiftth room is reserved for Dr. Ashram Isard. He is by far our youngest crewman, at age nineteen." He watched the the jedi's eyes widen to the size of saucers and plunged on.
"Right now we are two days out from Kuat. One of our people will provide you with some street clothes you can wear along with a jacket. Later you will meet your pilots, I warn you. They will be assholes and unruly, but I trust you can keep them in line and make them the best they can be----what the hell?" The shipped lurched a bit and he staggered a bit and fished out his comlink and barked into it as Aayla steadied herself "Sorin what just happened?" the comlink crackled to life and Sorin's voice echoed out. "We got pulled from hyperspace sir, looks like pirates, our shields are powered and laser batteries are hot and ready to fire. Looks like they have fighter support...no more than three fighters sir." Tavin looked up to Aayla and she nodded to the unspoken order as she headed to the door and left Tavin standing in her wake.




Aayla all but flew down the corridors to the hanger as the ship rocked under several laser blasts. When she reached the hanger she immdiately went to the Arc-7 Clone fighter, not bothering to question where it had come from as she suited herself up and sealed the hatch. As quickly as she could she powered up the ships systems and looked behind her, not at all surprised to see a droid sitting behind her. When the door of the hanger bay opened she flipped two switches activating the repulsors then the thrusters lightly pushing the fighter forward, then she dove out, rolling onto the port S-foil as a Z-95 streaked past her, lasers blazing. She hit the forward thrust sending the fighter after her quarry as she flipped another switch to lock the Strike Foils in attack posistion before sending a trio of shots at the starfighter, impacting on the shields then stabbing the port wing with the deadly red fire, shredding the wing and laser off. Two more blasts turned the fighter and its pilot into vapor. Aayla grinned to herself and settled back agasint the command seat as she closed in on another fighter, letting the Force guide her actions and keep her awarness high.
Sorin stared out view port as Tavin came in and asked. "Status on our ship and theirs." Without missing a beat Sorin pointed to two of the ships and replied. "Those ships seem to be the primary raiders. If we can take out one of them they might retreat. Black Asp 1 is doing her job well, and has diverted the fighters to her." Tavin nodded then shifted his gaze to one of the Corvettes. "Open fire on that ones forward shields, I want a barrage on that ones shields for thirty seconds, when its shields are three quarters down launch a quartet of warheads into the bridge. Get our pilots to the other Arc-7s and have them form clear Black Asp 1's tail--shit! A laser blast slammed into the bridges shields making him stagger forward a bit before he could grip his chair properly as the Idiot's Array slowly turned, directing its modified laser cannons to the pirate corvette. In hte space of theiry seconds both starships exchanged fire until the Array launched a set of cluster torpedoes which sped unerringly into the bridges shields, collapsing them and penetrating further to pierce the bridges interior and detonate. Tavin did not have time to celebrate as a starfighters laser fire tore through the shields slamming into the nose of the Corvette, rending armor and electronics, and Tavin staggered forward as one his his bridge crew spoke up. "Sorry about that sir, had to shunt power from Auxilery to main and it shorted out gravity for a titch." Tavin waved him off as Aaylas fighter streaked past moments later, firing off red laser blasts, disintigrating the fighter that had broken through the shields.
Aayla fired off two more shots before she rolled her fighter away from her home ship and sped towards one of the last warships as she switched to her torpedoes, she searched for the weakest spot on the starships shielding before squeezing the triggers twice, sending a quartet of proton torpedoes into the shield covering the sensor dish, which held after the first torpedoes hit but did nothing to stop the second two from streaking in and detonating. Tavin watched the explosion from his place on the bridge and let out a war woop as the blockade runner split in half and escape pods shot out in several directions. Aayla keyed her com, the triumph if vicotry washing through her as she brought her fighter around. " Idiot's Array, this is Black Asp 1, reading senors all clear, coming in to land." Moments later Tavins voice came back over the com."Roger that 1, welcome home." The com clicked off and the lower hanger bay doors opened so that she could land which she did moments after the doors had opened. Slowly she shut down the ships systems and leaned agasint the seat, rubbing her eyes a little as the adrenaline left her system. Quckly she popped the hatch after the hanger doors closed and Tavin entered in at a run, catching her in a bear hug and all but dancing with her. "We did it!! We are home free now! Aayla struggled a bit and finally pushed away, eyeing the Captain like he had taken a trip off the deep end until he hit his com. "Lucifer, plot us a course to Kuat, lets put our upgraded hyperdrive to use." There was a staticy acknowledgement then the ship leapt back into hypserspace, speeding towards Tavins home.
Hours later Aayla sat on a table in the med as the doctor, which Tavin had introdced as Ashram Isard, tested her reflexes and gave her the general physical. he looked up at her for a moment. "Raise your arm ma'am, I want to see how well it has healed." The twi'lek complied, and as she did so she winced. Ashram tapped his chin thoughtfully before he reached out and touched certain spots on her shoulder until she yelped in pain and he nodded again and indicated she could lower her arm which she did, greatfully and he spoke. "Your shoulder is healing well Lieutenant, but you will still have to becareful of what you do. Which means no heavy lifting, exercisng at least two hours a day." Dr. Isard went over to a cabinet and pulled out a small pot of salve which he would give to her along with instructions. "Rub that over the blaster bolt scars every day before you go to bed and after you wake up. This will not only help the healing process but it will make scars fad and disappear. Aayla nodded and as she slipped off the table she asked in a soft voice. "Why are we going to Kuat, doctor?" Ashram turn to her surprised etched on his face as he replied. "Tavin and the rest of us stop by Kuat to see his parents every month to give them money and for us to catch some R&R. He also goes to visit his wifes grave." Aayla stood there for a moment, clutching the small pot of salve in her hands as she asked, but knowing the answer even as she felt the grief sweep through the doctor. "He was married?" The doctor nodded sadly and replied. "To a beautiful, smart, and talented woman. She died during child birth....and...I wasn't able to save either her or the baby." Aayla set aside the salve and gently placed a slim blue hand upon his shoulder and squeezed lightly. "You did everything you could sir. Sometimes it is the will of the Force to take something away like that, because in doing so will give greater things to those that seemed to have lost everything." Whatever the doctor was going to say was cut off by Aaylas comlink beeping. Quickly he picked it up and avtivated it. "Lieutenant Securra here." Sorins voice came back a bit cheerful. "Ah good Lieutenant. Captain Banner asked me to inform you and the Doctor that we have arrived in Kuat and are makeing preperations to land. He requests that both of you be ready to debark as soon as we land, so get your shore leave gear together. Kain out."
When the com clicked off Aayla paled a bit and looked to the doctor, bowing slightly before she left with the salve clutched tightly in her hands. Shore leave clothes? all she had was the tank top that expsed her midriff and the hip hugging pants, and her boots. When she entered her room she started in surprise at the site of the set of clothes on the bed. There was a standard Dewback hide leather jacket, dyed black that was measured to her size, along with a set of t-shirts that could be suited for her, along with some other pants, and a standard issue heavy blaster pistol in a holster. Next to that was a second belt with a familiar clip for her light sabre and a note attached to it.

Aayla, this belt can be used one of two ways. One is to strap it to the inside of your jacket. the other is well, to wrap it around your waist. Remember, You are still hunted and It would be ill advised to do the second option if you do bring your lightsabre with you which I am still strongly against but will not discourage. Anyways. In the jacket pocket you will find a credit stick that is wired to a bank account of your own, at the moment you have a total of fifty eight thousand credits. Try not to spend it all in one place.


Tavin

The twi'lek whisled softly at the amount of cash in her account, then making sure her door was locked, she stripped out of the once again dirty clothes. She looked at the salve, then to the blaster bolt scar on her shoulder, and dipped her slim fingers into the stuff and applied a little to her scar after shifting her brain tails out of the way, then she applied a bit more of the stuff to her hip wounds, humming in satisfaction as some of the soreness went away. When she had finished that she reached for a pair of pants and a white shirt, blaster and the belt and as she went to change she stopped in front of the full length mirror, staring at the stranger that stared back. Shadows haunted her eyes which also seemed to be hallow. As her gaze traveled downward she winced, at the thinness that had set in, and her mind traveled back to when Tavin had hugged her. Damnit....she was a jedi not some love struck teenager! Angry at herself she pulled on the shirt and pants, pausing briefly, as if debating bringing her lightsabre along with her before she strapped the blaster to her hip. She shook her head and tossed the sabre onto her bed, thinking it would be better to not bring it. Tavin was right, if she was to survive she had to blend in. That meant learning to not use her Force powers so much. She paled at the thought, but then decided to keep it to a bare minium. she then pulled on the leather jacket and her boots and as an after thought, she lifted one of her brain tails, arraying it over her shoulder then turned on her heel and went to the bridge, stopping only to lock her door.
When she did reach the bridge and stopped, staring at the planet. She had seen many planets, but still the thought of seeing new planets took her breath away and she let out a muttered. "Wow." Tavin turned, smiling slightly he spoke in a low voice, as if joy was creeping back into him again. "We are here."

a/n: And so ends my second chapter, reveiws are appreciated as always. *nodnodnodnod* I am not to sure when chapter 3 will be up but i will have it up soon.