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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2282713" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 224: Blind JumpThe corridors were empty. The building was empty. It was extremely unhelpful. There were no signs of any Alraxians anywhere that Jyren could find. Of course, the entire place was as big as the Palace, so he doubted he’d be able to explore it all and find them in his current haste anyway. Think.No! No there isn’t time to think! Feel.    ...but that takes time, too! If only Shadow was conscious enough for the link to provide more than a hazy blur! Why was she always getting caught, anyway?! What kind of assassin was she?! It seemed like no matter what, things always went back to this. Shadow was caught. He was going after her. This was, in fact, the root of all of the current problems that had ever developed to make his life more interesting. So, rightfully, he blamed her.    Not that it was a bad thing, of course. At least it was something consistent and stable in his life. Considering how rare that seemed to be, Jyren was to the point where he’d take whatever he could. And if that meant saving Shadow from whatever she’d gotten herself...no, them....into, then so be it. Its not like he hadn’t done it before. Maybe he should start charging for the service...    Nah. His life was on the line, too. A technicality she’d likely planned on. In fact, she probably does all of this on purpose just to get a cheap laugh. It wouldn’t be surprising at all. In fact...    No. Focus. There wasn’t time for anything but what was right in front of him. Focus. Feel...the ship had to be here. There wasn’t another option. Where? Reach out...focus...feel...but Jyren found nothing. At least, not what he was looking for. But then, suddenly, a thought came to mind. A new objective taking the lead, he ran over to a nearby wall and kicked it as hard as he could.    [Ow!]    Jyren grinned, and looked up around him, “I need to know if there’s any kind of metal ship here!”    The facility was silent, but then responded with a dry, somewhat annoyed ‘voice’. [...you could have asked instead of kicking me first.]    “It got your attention,” he shrugged and held the grin. So much like the Palace...so much like Loki...no. Focus. Don’t think about that now, “Please, I need to know right now if there’s a metal ship in this place, and I need to know where it is.”    [There is such an object in Hangar AG-284...but it is locked down and I am afraid you will not be able to access it unless you have the proper clearance to present.]    “Its my ship,” Jyren growled sternly, glancing around to try and figure out which direction to go. He gave up on that one extremely quickly, “I need you to direct me to that hangar and open it up for me. I need my ship back.”    The facility felt like it was going to argue with him for a short moment. However, it seemed to be surprised by the fact that Jyren was claiming to actually own a metal ship! No Alraxian was that crazy! Which meant he was either brainless or was telling the truth. The facility itself wasn’t sure on this, but was curious enough to find out...so it started directing him in the proper path.    It took Jyren ten agonizing long minutes to reach the correct place. And when he got there, and the hangar door was opened, Jyren saw a familiar, and amazingly calming sight. His X-Wing. Well...no. Technically, it was the New Republic’s X-Wing that he’d stolen back on Coruscant. However, at this point, he doubted they even remembered it was gone...so it was as good as his anyway. Un-Jedi like? True. But it could have been worse.    He quickly ran down a small ramp leading to the center section where the X-Wing was placed. There were many interesting objects all littered around, and a few marks across the ship’s hull that he didn’t remember from before. The Alraxians had been experimenting with it. Hopefully they hadn’t done anything to the two systems he needed the most. The sublight drives and the hyperdrive. He really didn’t care if the rest of it was shot...even the repulsorlifts. Sure, it would make for rough landings, but at least he’d get there.    Shrugging the pack he still carried with him off and tossing it into the rear seat of the two-seat X-Wing, Jyren climbed into the forward one. Right away, his hands were running over the controls, getting the ship’s systems warmed up and online as quickly as he could. Thankfully, an initial look at everything showed that all the major systems were online and working fine...even if there were only five proton torpedoes left. If all went well, he wouldn’t need them anyway.    In another minute, the ship was lifting up and the canopy closing around him. Jyren shifted slightly into a more comfortable position, forgetting how the seats in this starfighter were not designed with tails in mind. And then, finally, the familiar sound of the X-Wing’s sublight drives kicking in echoed through the cockpit as the ship shot out of a large exit to the hangar just above where the starfighter had been set down. It felt amazing to be finally flying again...it felt so perfect. It was like coming home after so many years...he grinned at that thought, finally able to understand that statement after the recent revelations about his own past.    But as Jyren brought the starfighter through the maze of orbiting Kanyaks and away from the planet’s gravity well, another thought hit him. Something that hadn’t even crossed his mind the entire time. Something that, if Shadow had been with him when this revelation came to mind, would have gotten him hit across the back of the head for completely and utter stupidity.    He had no idea, at all, of the necessary hyperspace coordinates for the jump to the Capital. In fact, this entire Alraxian Empire was uncharted space to him, and, more importantly, to his X-Wing’s navcomputer. Jyren was blind. He sighed heavily. Made it this far...and still managed to miss such an important detail the entire time. It was mistakes like that which got people killed. A mistake like that one had cost Mare her life.     He hadn’t really grown up all that much in the past three years, then. In the end, Jyren was still that kid in an X-Wing...bright eyed and naive. A good shot, a good pilot, but with no real sense of the galaxy or of what war really was like. After all these years, he had thought he was past that. That he’d actually learned from his mistakes and become a better person because of it. But here he was, making the same mistakes, at the same critical moments...and yet again, the life of someone he loved was on the line. But Jyren wasn’t dead yet. And if he wasn’t dead, then Shadow wasn’t dead. It was the one glimmer of hope he had to hang onto.    Think.    No! That was foolish! Thinking wouldn’t get him anywhere! It wasn’t like he could just plot a jump to a planet he didn’t know the location of off the top of his head! Thinking was only going to lead him down that path! Then what? Don’t think.    Don’t think?! No...feel. Feel! Of course! Use the link. Use the Force. And he did. Reaching out through the link and the Force at the same time, Jyren tried to feel out where exactly the planet was. Where Shadow was. Farther and farther he reached...and then he found it. He found her. With an invisible grip as tight as a vice, he held onto it so as not to lose it. If he lost it...lost his focus...he might never find it again. Focus. Feel.    Step one was finished. He had the location. He could feel it. Now came step two. Plot the jump. Plot the jump blindly, on his own, and without the help of the navcomputer or a droid. But don’t think about it. Let the Force guide it. Let the Force guide him...and he did. And in an amazingly short amount of time, Jyren had entered a set of complication coordinates into the X-Wing’s navcomputer. When his mind retreated from the Force and he looked down at the small screen with the coordinates sitting there, he knew just how insane it was.    Jyren knew that if had made just one tiny little mistake in that...he could end up literally in the middle of no where with no way to get back. He had no beacons to drop here to guide his way back. This was a one way trip. This was it. There weren’t going to be any second chances. And there weren’t any other choices, either.    His hand shaking just slightly, Jyren pulled the hyperspace levers.</blockquote>

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