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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2089985" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 169: HomewardTwo days went by. Shadow had locked herself in the cargo bay, meditating and trying not to focus on how stupid Akan was acting. No, not stupid...childish. He was stuck with some damned sense of Jedi nobility that he only used when it was convenient for him. Of course, he seemed to pick the worst times to start spouting off about it. Especially now. Of all times, he had to revert to that now.    And so, after a few hours of fuming on it and simply getting more and more angry, Shadow cut him off. Despite a very quiet voice that objected only once, she blocked their link. It was amazingly easy to focus again. No random thoughts flying around, no constantly being bothered when Akan got bored, and especially no having him picking through her thoughts when she wasn’t paying enough attention. But still...    No. No, there was no ‘but still’. And this was quickly put to rest with a calming technique and then more fierce meditation coupled with a bit of unarmed practice. She was going to need it. It had been a long time since having to deal with anything like what they were willingly walking into.    Akan, on the other hand, wasn’t doing so well. The absence of the link ended up reverting him back to how he’d been after Mare had died all those years ago. It had become something to fall back on, if only for the knowledge that he wasn’t fighting alone anymore. A reason to keep going, reminding him every minute that his life wasn’t just his own anymore. And now it was gone. Silent and blocked off, leaving him alone in the galaxy again.    So he sat there in the starship’s lounge, staring blankly out at the field of stars. He tried to think, to focus through the numbness that had grown again, but couldn’t seem to manage it. Just like when Mare had died. He’d been too weak then, and he’d come out of it a mess. New Republic SpecForce had only allowed him to work for them because of his skill at getting the job done, which was the result of a hatred that had developed for anything that happened to have anything resembling the world “Empire” on it.    But somehow, through what should have been an impossible course of events, he was brought back from it. Sure, it had taken leaving the New Republic and three long years of freelance work, but without any of that he would have never met the Verpine named Ansion. He’d died and been reborn...literally. And not long after his physical rebirth, a mental one came from the assistance of Jen and the constant fallback that the link with Shadow had provided. And now they were both gone. They were both gone, and he couldn’t help but feel at fault for it. Just like Mare. Just when things were working, Akan always found a way to screw things up and get people killed.    Unlike before, though, no cold hatred or anger grew out of being cut off from the link. Instead, he just went numb. Akan sat there unmoving, his mind focused on nothing as he stared blankly into that hole in space that the Alraxian ring created. Even Tobias couldn’t get anything out of him, no matter how loud he wailed for food or to play or just for simple attention.    On the third day of waiting, the makeshift comm unit Shadow had built flickered to life. She had been working through a rigorous series of exercises to hone her body and mind but was hyper-aware of her surroundings. This meant that the second a hint of a change appeared on the unit across from her in the cargo bay, she stopped what she was doing and moved over to sit in front of it. In a moment, the flickering formed into a well crafted and slightly blue tinted three dimensional image of the Empress. Her mother did not smile, though her eyes seemed to hint at something more than the somber look Shadow had gotten used to seeing over the years.    In slow, deliberate tones, the Empress said simply, “You will be allowed entrance. Coordinates have been transmitted with this communication. We will meet you there to bring you home.”    There was a pause in which the Empress gave Shadow the chance to speak, but she didn’t. When the awkward silence ended up lasting too long, the older Alraxian simply inclined her head before her image flickered away. Shadow sat there just staring at the now empty space for a long moment, her mind going over her mother’s last word. Home. And despite all the danger, all the fear, and all the death that awaited her there, she couldn’t help but smile. Home.    With a quick speed she pulled out the datapad that had been lodged into the makeshift comm device, getting to her feet and walking over to the exit of the cargo bay. Shadow unlocked the door, which opened with a swish to the cool air of the ship’s main corridor, and walked straight to the cockpit. Her longer legs took her there in at least half the time that it usually took, and she took no time to look at any of the doors she passed by. Only a couple of them were open, both of which had piles of boxes or chairs that Tobias had managed to drag in to climb and hit the switch to open them.    In a matter of minutes, Shadow was in the pilot’s chair and had uploaded the nav data to the starship’s computer. Shifting uncomfortably in the relatively small seat, she then got the sublight engines online and positioned the ship in front of the gigantic ring...waiting. Five minutes passed with nothing happening other than a beep from the computer to indicate the hyperspace coordinates were plotted and ready. But that meant nothing.    The only accessible hyperspace route lay through the ring, and the fact that it had a black center instead of stars showing through was a hint to not attempt flying straight through. Not that many wayward travelers happened upon it, but there were those one in a million chances that had to be planned for. Besides, what other system in the galaxy could attest to such amazingly perfect border control?    Then the blackness within the ring shimmered. It shimmered in a way that black nothingness shouldn’t be able to do, and slowly small white dots began to seep through. Like an oozing liquid, the light from the distant stars slowly poked through until the veil had completely faded away. Shadow smiled again, before reaching for the hyperspace levers. Shadow had seen this a thousand times at least...the stars slowly extending, more and more until suddenly they shot past and the galaxy ahead became a swirling, endless blue tunnel. But never before had she been so nervous. Home. Home and then what? The planning had only gone this far. Beyond this, everything was going to have to be made up on the spot.    Not that this was a bad thing, of course, but it was definitely something that the Alraxian people wouldn’t like. Of course, they’d like being killed by the war droids created by a traitorous member of their race much less than change. At least, that was the assumption.((Seeing the Revenge of the Sith trailer has me all geared up for some crazy lightsaber action. Sadly, not much of that for a little while...May 19th can't come soon enough.))</blockquote>

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