Story 6 (Part 5)

Captain Geo was kind of glad to see his brothers waiting near the MIDNIGHT FLIGHT an hour later. He apologized, “Hey, I’m sorry for the way I talked to you guys at breakfast. I guess I just don’t want to think that she might be meeting with a Separatist.”

CT-19-2120 concurred, “We’re sorry too. We don’t want to think that either. Guess we were just paranoid.” 

After forgiving and forgetting, the troops were happy when their general came over to them. She smiled, honestly relieved to see them there. She asked, “You guys coming?”

“Yes Judy. We’re coming,” her captain replied. 

“Good. Let’s go.” They followed her into the ship’s cabin and prepared to take off. Once the FLIGHT was out of the cruiser, the Knight set the nav computer and let her ship pilot itself out of Coruscant’s atmosphere. Starlighter questioned, “Where’d you get this ship Judy?”

“A friend of mine and I built it.”

“No way. You built this?”

“Yep. Soon after I was adopted, my friend, Wontollo, and I were checking out some of the ships in the local hangar. We found the frame for a BARLOZ-class freighter way off in the back. We asked the hangar keeper, Noton, another close friend of mine, what it was doing back there. He said it had been there since he got the hangar and said we could have it if we wanted it.

“Wontollo and I accepted his offer and got to work right away. As we got on with our project, Noton and Chaké Tay, the pilot at the local spaceport, helped us acquire some parts we needed. After a while, the MIDNIGHT FLIGHT was finished. Wontollo said I could keep it, because he wanted to move on to another project he was working on. So, I’ve had her ever since.”

“Wow. So you’re a Jedi, and you can build starships from scrap? That’s unbelievable.” She shrugged, “It’s amazing what a person can do with some free time. I practiced the Force, and built ships. Well, a ship.”

“Wait. You built this when you were eight?” Geo wondered. 

“Yeah.”

“And your father let you keep it?”

“Of course. He knew how much work Wontollo and I put into it. He said that it would be a waste if neither of us got to keep it.”

“And you knew how to pilot it?”

“Well, not at first. Chaké taught me a couple things whenever he returned from his trips. I caught on pretty quickly.” Crossfire jested, “Next you’re going to tell us that you met a Sith before you built the ship.” She smiled, “I’ll save that story for another time.”

“You’ve got to be kidding.”

“Nope. Totally serious.” As her companions practically begged her to tell them the story of when she met a Sith Lord, she activated the hyperdrive, sending her ship to Maridun. “Seriously guys. One amazing story at a time,” she requested. 

“All right. Maybe instead, you and I could have a rematch?” Starlighter challenged. 

“Really? You want to get beaten again? You and Crossfire already owe Geo and me a day of servitude.”

“Well, if I win this time, we don’t have to serve either of you.” 

“All right. But if I win again, you guys will owe us two days.”

“You’re on. Where’s the hologame table?” She pressed a button on the control panel and watched the table rise up from the middle of the floor. “Oh, no way did you build that too.”

“Wontollo actually thought of it. Saves room, but also cures mid-flight boredom.” They set to their game. “You want to go first or second? Either way, you’ll end up last.”

“Ha ha. I’ll go second, thank you very much.” The Knight moved one of her players. Starlighter then moved one of his. This went on for a few minutes, until Judy was able to get rid of one of his players. Then Starlighter took away one of hers. And again this went on until there were only five players on the board. 

“You’re doing much better this time,” Judy complimented.

“Yeah, because I was going easy on you the first time.”

“Oh, of course. Glad to see you’re not holding back.” Another of his players, gone. He made another move, then sat back in his chair.

“Good luck getting yourself out of that.” She smiled, “There is no such thing as luck.” She got out of his setup and bested him yet again. He shot up in his chair and stared at the board. He asked, “How did you do that?”

“Try practicing some more and you might actually beat me one day.” Crossfire put his hand on the medic’s shoulder and said, “Now you know how I feel.” 

“All right. You beat me, again. How about we call a truce?”

“Okay, truce.” She shook his hand in peace. “But you still owe us the two days.”

“Yeah, I thought so.”

“Nice hologaming there Judy,” Geo congratulated. 

“Thank you. Anyone else want to try me?”

“No thanks. It’s bad enough losing to Starlighter all the time. I think we could go without losing to our general all the time. How about you let me and Crossfire get in a game?”

“Be my guest.” She moved aside for the two troopers to begin their game. Geo and Crossfire’s started out like Judy and Starlighter’s. Everyone was focused on the game. Though, every once in a while, Geo would notice the Knight glancing away from the table. He couldn’t tell exactly, but it seemed as though she were looking at him. 

When Crossfire won the game, Judy took the ship out of hyperspace. She questioned, “You guys ever been to Maridun before?” Starlighter denied, “Nope.”

“Me neither.”

“Really?”

“There’s a first time for everything.” She landed the FLIGHT in a large, open field and lowered the boarding ramp. “Could you guys please stay here?”

“Why? Wasn’t the purpose of us coming too to meet your father?”

“Yeah, but I want to make sure that he came. As I said, something might have come up.” She headed out of the cockpit. After exchanging some looks, Geo hurried after her. 

“Judy, wait.” He took hold of her wrist and stopped her. “Why can’t we just come with you?”

“Because, I don’t want you to come if there’s nothing to come to.”

“But we’re already here. We can go a little bit farther.”

“Please, Geo. If my dad is here, I’ll contact you guys and tell you to come over.”

“(sigh) If he’s not here, you’ll come back? And maybe we could come up with another way for us to meet him?”

“Yes.”

“Promise?” She stared at him for a little while, thinking. Then, she took off her necklace and gave it to Geo.

“What’s this for?”

“If I’m lying, I don’t deserve to keep that. And I’d like nothing more than for you to have it.” She clasped the chain around his neck, grabbed a jumpspeeder, and took off away from the MIDNIGHT FLIGHT. He hesitantly went back to the cockpit, touching the little medallion. He sat in his chair and just watched the floor.

“So? What’s going on?” Crossfire wondered. CC-0714 replied, “She left to go check for her father. … I think we should follow her.” His brothers gave him questioning looks. 

“You sure Geo?”

“… Yeah. She can’t be too far in front of us. We should be able to catch up in no time. Come on.” They went down the ramp, pulled out some jumpspeeders, climbed on, and headed off after Judy. The captain turned on his nav computer and started tracking the Jedi’s speeder. She had gotten pretty far ahead of them. But they could catch up in little more than a few minutes. 

“Do you guys also have what I have on the nav computer screen?” Crossfire questioned. Starlighter confirmed, “Yeah. Another ship right where Judy is headed. It’s probably her father. A little closer and we can probably get a reading on what kind of ship it is.”

After another two minutes, the Knight’s speeder stopped right in front of the other ship. Right about the time the troops could identify the type of ship. 

“A SHEATHIPEDE-class transport shuttle? Isn’t that what Separatist leaders use?” Crossfire wondered aloud. Geo suddenly got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He said just loud enough for his brothers to hear, “Come on. We’re almost there.” He stopped them a couple hundred yards away from the shuttle, near a large tree.

“Why are we stopping here?”

“I’m just checking something out.” Geo switched on the built-in electrobinoculars in his helmet and focused on the shuttle. He saw their friend conversing with a golden protocol droid outside of the transport.

“What’s going on?” Starlighter asked. 

“She’s talking to a protocol. She’s laughing. … The droid just went inside the shuttle.”

“Doesn’t seem too suspicious. Why don’t we just go over there?” He held up a hand to stop them. “Wait. Someone’s coming out of the shuttle.” He then saw who Judy had come all this way to meet. “It’s the Viceroy.”

“Gunray?” his brothers simultaneously disbelieved.

“Yeah. … Let’s go.” This time, they didn’t argue. The three sped towards the shuttle. The captain couldn’t believe that she was meeting with a Separatist! And it was Viceroy Gunray at that! “How could she betray us like that?” he thought. 

The troopers stopped their jumpspeeders, hopped off, and brought out their blasters. They pointed them at Gunray and the Knight. Geo commanded, “Stay right there! You’re under arrest.” 

When Judy saw them, she instantly turned pale. She questioned, “What are you guys doing here? I thought I asked you to wait until I contacted you.”

“We’re here because we had suspicions that you were dealing with the Separatists. And apparently, we were right!” Geo fumed.

“No, you guys don’t understand. I came here to meet up with my father.”

“Would you please stop lying? You’re obviously not meeting with your father!” he argued.

“Yes, I am!” Her voice sounded almost pleading. 

“Oh, what? And the Viceroy just happen to show up too?”

“No. He is my father!” The troops uncertainly lowered their weapons, confused.

“… W-what?” the trooper stammered, also confused. She sighed, “Guys, meet my dad.” Gunray smiled sheepishly. For what seemed to be hours, everyone just stared at each other, silence eating away at them. 

Finally, Geo said a simple word that seemed to get the point across. “How?” She explained that Gunray had come to the orphanage when it had made a stop on Cato Neimoidia. She told them how he adopted her almost instantly after meeting her. And how they had loved each other from then on. 

“And you didn’t tell anyone because you were afraid of how they’d react. That’s why we had to be ready to meet him. You thought we would respond… well, the way we did,” he summed up.

“Exactly. I wasn’t lying to you guys. But… I could have been a little more truthful.”

“And we could have been more trusting. We’re sorry Judy.”

“We’re sorry,” his brothers apologized. He added, “And we’re also sorry that we tried to arrest you, Sir.” Gunray excused, “It’s all right. Not the first time I’ve been arrested. And, we thought something like this would happen sooner or later.”

“Well, I guess this kinda proves that everything isn’t what it seems to be,” Crossfire put in. Judy told, “Actually, you guys weren’t completely wrong. Technically, I was meeting up with a Separatist.”

“I guess, but you were telling the truth the whole time, and we didn’t believe you. Any way you could forgive us?” Starlighter asked. She smiled, “Already done.” 

Her father spoke up, “Well, how about we put this whole mix-up behind us and get to know each other as planned?” His daughter turned to her troopers. She questioned, “Are you guys up for it?” 

The troops nodded, “Definitely.”

“Wonderful. I’ll go get CeeDee,” Gunray volunteered.

“CeeDee?”

“My dad’s protocol droid. And in some ways, my mom.” Once C-3D6 joined the five, they spent the afternoon trading stories and jokes. Judy was relieved to see her family and her friends getting along so well.

~~~

The night lights of Coruscant’s buildings shined brightly as the MIDNIGHT FLIGHT flew by to the landing strip. It landed in the DEVOTION’s hangar next to a line of BTL-B Y-wing starfighters. The ramp lowered to the ground, and the doors opened. Geo, Crossfire, and Starlighter walked down the boarding ramp. 

“Wow. Yesterday, if you had told me that Viceroy Gunray was our general’s father, I probably would have thought you’d lost your mind. But it’s true. I’m still having somewhat of a hard time believing it,” Crossfire mentioned. 

“I know, right? And he’s actually a really nice guy. I didn’t expect that from what we were told about him,” Starlighter added. The captain agreed, “Definitely not. I feel so bad for accusing them like that. … You guys go on ahead. I’ll catch up with you later.”

“All right. See ya Geo.” They left the hangar as he turned back to the FLIGHT. He saw the Knight sitting on the side of her ship, staring out the open hangar doors. He went back to the starship and looked up at her.

“You okay?” he wondered. She nodded, “I could be better.”

“You wanna talk about it?”

“Sure.” She helped him up next to her, then returned her gaze to the sky. He watched her for a few moments before speaking up. 

“What’s wrong?”

“(sigh) Dad.”

“What about him? Besides the fact that we tried to arrest him today,” the trooper jested.

“He’s a Separatist. … But please believe me when I say that he doesn’t want to be.”

“Then why doesn’t he change to the Republic?”

“I’ve asked him that before. He always says that there are ‘certain reasons’ why he can’t leave the Separatists. I think he’s being threatened.”

“That’s not surprising.” He saw a couple tears drip off her chin. Geo put his hand on her shoulder comfortingly. “I’m sure that if he didn’t have those ‘reasons’, he would join the Republic in a heartbeat. He’d do anything for you.”

Judy smiled and hugged him strongly. He was caught off-guard, but soon embraced her just as tightly. She praised, “Thank you, Geo.”

“You’re welcome Judy.” As they pulled away, her friend remembered something. “Oh! I think you might want this back.” He took off the necklace that she had given him before the incident occurred. “You weren’t lying, so you should keep it. It was meant for you anyway.”

“I almost forgot. Thanks.” He helped her put it on, then admired the Jedi medallion that displayed proudly around her neck. “Thanks,” she repeated.

“No problem.” The Knight sighed, “It’s been a long few days, huh?” He agreed, “Oh, no doubt. But for the next two days, we won’t have to do a thing. Cause Crossfire and Starlighter still owe us those two days of servitude.”

“Mm. Can’t wait. (giggle) You think I could get a few more days out of them?”

“You called a truce, remember?”

“Right. … Want to see if I can beat them at Sabacc?”

“You think you can?”

“I don’t play hologames half as well as I play Sabacc.” They swapped knowing glances and eagerly raced to challenge his brothers.