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The Vacation 2003
short story by Louis Turfrey Thirty-eight years after Episode IV – A New Hope Most
of the time I take jobs that nobody else wants to do, I find it the easiest
way to make a reputation and a credit. That makes it very hard work. So hard,
that I need a vacation occasionally. Not the sort of vacation you might take,
you understand. The sort that only a hard-wired bounty
hunter and ex-Jedi might take. With the Ki-Ki
currently occupying the Setnin Sector, this means
more fun than ever before. “Take cover!”
The assault team I was commanding dropped rapidly to the ground, their
reactions perfectly trained to provide the correct response. There was the
silent whispering of highly tuned ion engines as the two speeders swept by
less than five metres to the right of us. I felt a brief surge of adrenaline
and then leapt upwards and over the bluff, landing on the back of the rear
speeder. My blasters stunned the occupants, who I threw over the side. Within
two seconds I had pulled up behind the first
speeder, the occupants of which were still unaware of my presence. Again, I
leapt forward, somersaulting over the front of my speeder and landing on the
back of theirs. Three more blasts and they were out cold. I’d
barely travelled five hundred metres from the assault team. They caught up
with me less than thirty seconds later. Skumul
looked me over and shook his head. “Not a scratch
and you didn’t even use the lightsabre.” I grinned, realising for the first time that I had
instinctively used my blasters. It was nice to know I still had bounty
hunters’ instincts. He looked at the stunned Ki-Ki. “What do you
want to do with them now?” I looked them up and down. There were five of us in the
assault team, and five of the stunned Ki-Ki. I
searched the senior officer for his orders and identification. A quick check
and I knew that we had the right people. I smiled. “Let’s go
native.” The compound was heavily fortified; yours would be if you
were undergoing constant attacks from the Leogard
Resistance. Our ID’s had been forged impeccably, or so I hoped by a smuggler
associates contacts. Jan Lomona had some good
contacts, and I hoped they would stand up to the heaviest scrutiny. What I didn’t count on was the pet they had chained to the
gateposts. Skumul tapped me on the shoulder, I knew
what he meant, I had felt the psychic power, and I started to concentrate. It
took some seconds, and some concentration. I hoped nobody at the gate had
noticed the dreamy look appear on the captured telepaths face. I brought the
speeders to a halt. As the guard walked towards us, Skumul
started to speak. “This is Captain
Aran of the first legion. We have been transferred from the orbital defence
force to help interrogate the prisoners.” He handed over all the papers and
the guard made a show of examining them. He handed them over and pointed
towards the manacled telepath. “Sirs, if you
would please move over towards the Mind, he will scan you.” I nodded to the men who started to look nervous. As we
moved towards the Mind I could feel the awareness
within him starting to surface. I suppressed it gently, showing him just what
I could do to for him if he kept quiet about our presence. Funnily enough,
this made him go pale and he started to twitch. He nodded and croaked out his
affirmation that we were clean through cracked lips. The guard gave him water
as we passed by, I nodded to the man and left a thought within his brain – be
ready. It took me half an hour of more questions, more checking
of papers and a close shave with a too-curious jail keeper before I was allowed in to see the prisoner I had been sent to
rescue. As the jail keeper opened the door in front of me, my personal guard
took positions both inside and outside the jail cell. Sitting in the corner
bruised but obviously defiant, sat an ancient figure. I felt the weariness
within her rising as she saw the inevitability of another interrogation. She
looked me up and down, not showing any recognition of who we really were. “Don’t tell me,
you’re the one who has been sent to drain the last of the information from my
brain. Go ahead and try.” There was no malevolence in the words, just weary
defiance. “Greetings
Mother.” I nodded to Skumul. Skumul
moved swiftly and broke the neck of the jail keeper. His death throes and
twitching filled the otherwise silent cell, as he died a quick death. She
stared hard at me hard, seeming to weigh my words in her mind, and then it
was as if realisation dawned. “It’s not
possible. The genetic code can’t survive three generations.” I moved in closer and removed my helmet. “Let’s just say
I have been resurrected, and leave it there for now. You could seem pleased to see me.” She gathered her wits about her and as we exited the
cell, and only had one thing to say to me. “What took you
so long?” We exited the jail quietly. I had to use the force
several times to misdirect the attention of others and I won’t
mind admitting that it became tedious. It was whilst I was misdirecting
another’s thoughts that I picked up on an image in
the other persons mind. I knew this man, and I had thought him dead along
with his ship. I was brought out of my reverie by
the tap on my shoulder from Skumul. “What?” My voice
was harsher than I intended, but Skumul took no
notice. “I think you should let go of that mans
mind, and extinguish your lightsabre. We’re attracting attention.” I looked over and realised the subconscious anger I had
felt towards the Ki-Ki guard was being channelled
directly to the man I was trying to redirect. He had been shaking as if an
electric current had been passing through him. It didn’t
help that I had my ignited Lightsabre in my hand. I let him down gently and
released his mind. As he collapsed into an
unconscious state, a second guard, who‘d appeared dumbstruck, raised
his head in my direction. Whether he saw the look in my eyes, or my
Lightsabre in my hand made little difference - he instantly knew what I was.
Before I could stifle him, he had dashed around the corner. I really need to concentrate on improving my
self-control. “Not good.” Critchek, as usual, was understating the
situation “Get her out of
here. I’ll deal with this.” I shrugged off the top of the Ki-Ki
uniform and threw it at my mother, then quickly replaced my lightsabre on the outside of the belt. I chose to remain
bare-chested; having left my shirt and the rest of my armour buried two
kilometres north of the fortress. Besides, I was proud of my physique. “Take her to the
transport, I’ll create a diversion.” My voice was calm and I could feel the
power of the force flowing through me. Critchek
looked over and nodded without a word. He motioned to the rest of the men and
they formed an honour guard around my mother as she placed the Ki-Ki tunic and helmet over her clothes. Within seconds they had lifted her lightly and were jogging with
her towards the gate. I leapt straight up and onto the top of the nearest
building. I could feel alarm and anger rising nearby. I ran cautiously
towards it and soon found myself on the top of a small warehouse, less than
fifteen meters above a rapidly massing force of Ki-Ki
troops. From my vantage point, I could see they had left the gate
open and unguarded. I smiled at their lack of co-ordination. Had there been a
decent commander on the base, my colleagues would not have stood a chance. As
I watched, two repulsor transports exited the
encampment. I felt the alarm from the gate sentry, and just as quickly I felt his pain as something caused him to lose
consciousness. A figure moved near the gate and I could just make out a
shadow scrabbling in the dust. Then my attention was drawn
to the crowd below and I knew what I had to do. Priming a sonic concussion
grenade, I stuffed plugs in my ears, and dropped it on the Ki-Ki. Ouch would be a good way of describing it. Imagine
thirty grown men unconscious whilst the rest of the platoon, about thirty
more, run around with their hands on their ears and blood running down their
faces. Kind of funny to look at from up above. Okay, so I have a warped sense of humour. Numerous lifetimes of combat will do that
to a man. I did not wait to find out who had survived the
onslaught. My primary aim at this point was to get the information that I had
discovered safely off planet. There were at least three men I knew of that
could make use of the information, and from what I had learnt, time was of
the essence. I sprinted towards what turned out to be a two-seater
high atmosphere patrol craft. It was a high-powered swoop, modified for two
people at high altitude. Nice, I hadn’t flown one of
these in nearly forty years. This was one day that I was actually glad that I
had some Force skills to call upon. I examined the starter and found that it
needed an electronic code. I ripped it out, remembering training that I had
received over a lifetime ago and hotwired the starter. The repulsor purred into life and the two small turbines on
its outrigger glowed with power. This was going to be fun. I gunned the
throttle just as half of the bases troops poured around the corner in front
of me. I didn’t wait to find out if they were going
to get out of my way – I had a promise to keep. Pushing the thrust to its highest, I pulled back on the
steering controls and leant my body into a vertical climb. Within seconds I was feeling the chill of the atmosphere at seven
hundred meters. Then, just as they thought I was out of there, I flipped the
whole of the craft and pushing against its own inertia, I put it into a dive.
Relaxing into the force, I sought for the man at the gate. He was struggling
with the lock on his energy collar. I released it with a thought and loaned
him the strength I knew that he would need. All of this happened in the time
it takes you to blink The craft, or modified swoop that it really was, shot
towards the planets surface at a dizzying speed. With the briefest of
thoughts, I used my own skill and the force to turn it flat at the last
moment. Even so, she bottomed out on the planets dusty surface. I was lucky
to maintain my control, but I was able to catch up with the man running from
the gate. As I neared the running figure, I felt no fear from him.
There was urgency and a force of will, but no fear. In fact, for a man who
had appeared horribly subdued a mere hour ago, this man was deliriously
happy. I reached out to him in the force and lifted him bodily into the air.
I wasn’t sure at that time whether I could still do
that; I hadn’t had a chance to practice my control to that level since my
return. I gripped hold of him and placed him rather heavily behind me. His
legs were still trying to run as he found his balance. “Incredible, did
you do that?” I nodded as he shouted down my ear, “I’ve always wanted to meet
a Jedi! I can’t believe my luck!” This was getting more confusing by the minute – Minds did
not think like that, even I knew that. I rode the swoop over another ridge
and pulled it to a halt; my armour was buried
nearby. Twisting in the saddle, I grabbed my passenger, yanking him closer to
me, nose to nose. “I am not a
Jedi.” He was still grinning when I punched his lights out. I
left him lying on a shallow pile of shale whilst I collected my armour from
where I had buried it. Two minutes later, and I was powered
up and ready to go. He was just starting to rise as I knocked him out again.
I needed him, but I didn’t need his chatter. I loaded him onto the back of the swoop, tying him with
synthetic web, and powered up its systems. I hopped back on and within two
minutes, I was ten kilometres away, heading towards my meeting with Critchek. Critchek was where I had expected him to be, and so was my
mother. She was looking sternly at him and tapping her foot. Critchek had
both hands on his hips and was barring her exit from the surrounding group of
mercenaries. He looked like a man nearing the end of his tether. As I
pulled up, Critchek looked at me despairingly and
shrugged. I jumped off the swoop and moved over to the group. “What’s the
problem?” The filter on the helmet made my voice sound cold and annoyed. My
mother looked over to me for the first time and her stare pierced through the
uniform. “He wants me to
leave the planet. He wants me to abandon everything I have worked for over
the last sixteen years. I won’t do it, and you can’t force me to either.” I looked her up and down, judging what she had been
through in the last two weeks. I remotely selected a tranquilliser dart with
the right dosage and fired it directly at her. Critchek
caught her as she dropped backwards. I looked back at the still unconscious
telepath tied to the swoop. “Get these two
onboard the ship while I prep her for take-off.” I looked back at Critchek. “Make sure they are both comfortable and see to
any medical needs. Lock them in their
quarters.” Critchek was smiling at me as he
organised the men to lift them onboard. “What is so
funny?” Critchek gave a broad smile as he began
his work. “You two. You’re so alike. If
I didn’t know better I’d think you were clones.” Even I had to smile at that. As I walked up the ramp, I looked back once more over the
wasted surface of Leogard and found myself puzzled
at what it was that had engendered so much fierce loyalty within the ranks of
the resistance. I shook my head, closed the ramp, and wondered if I might be
able to grab a couple of days relaxing exercise on Vorathie
Prime. Then I remembered the telepath and my mood soured. I’d
have to get him and the information I was able to glean from the encounter
with the Ki-Ki, back to the Setnin
Defence Force - via the Raven Corporation. After all, I had to take back
something to cover my holiday expenses. The Vacation 2003
short story by Louis Turfrey Thirty-eight years after Episode IV – A New Hope Histories – A story showing the clone Ranth picking up the pieces of the life the real Tarr Ranth left behind, most importantly
the freeing of his mother Tasmin on Leogard. Showing Ranth
in action alongside another prominent Louis Turfrey
character Critchek Skumul, this story also shows Ranths possible involvement with the Raven
Corporation. What path will that lead the
young clone down?
Cast of Characters
Tar Ranth Critchek Skumul Tasmin De’Athe
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