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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2578866" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 278: The CoreThere was a trail to follow. It was faint, but it was there. On one planet, a simple report of a Corellian freighter that fit what they were looking for which simply landed for a few hours before leaving. On another, disappearances and even the possibility of a death, and the ship had been there...with the same transponder as the planet before. And when they had that, it was how they tracked the ship from one short hyperspace jump to another, always just a few hours behind, despite Loki’s speed.    But there was more to it than just the physical trail. That could have easily pointed to any traveler in the galaxy. They could have been following anyone. But there was more. Shadow could feel it. Distantly, someone was there, faint in the Force but running...running from something. And it always followed that transponder code. No, no it was always ahead of it, helping Shadow know exactly where to go to not lose the trail. But even Jyren could have put those two together. Or rather, he couldn’t, as he was still being a stubborn idiot and refusing to use the Force. That meant, of course, that Shadow was doing pretty much all of the work while he tried to look useful when he knew he wasn’t. Eventually, she was going to harm him if this kept up too long.    A week and they had tracked the ship from the Smuggler’s Moon all the way to Bothan Space. Another two days and they hit the Corellia Run. The second they made their first jump along the run, Jyren had a thought. And, of course, he spoke it.    “Alderaan.”    “Huh?” Shadow turned away from the swirling blue outside the viewport and back to Jyren who was sitting next to her as usual.    “She’s going to Alderaan,” he elaborated.    For a moment, Shadow just looked at him, though she was actually working this out in her head, trying to see if it connected with where the Force was leading her. She got nothing, and sighed, “You can’t be sure. She could be going anywhere in the Core this way.”    “She’s going to Alderaan,” Jyren repeated himself in the exact same tone as before.    Shadow just rolled her eyes, “Fine. She’s going to Alderaan. I’m sorry I argued with you, oh-all-knowing-one. I should have known you were such a genius that you could figure these things out all on your own.”    Thankfully, Jyren was smart enough not to argue. Not only would he have only made a fool of himself, but it would only have added to the tension these long days in hyperspace was causing. And they were long days. And to make matters worse, they weren’t even over.    They spent another four days following the Corellian Run, dropping out of hyperspace at even minor star systems to see if there was any sign of their ‘prey’.  But there wasn’t, and so they kept going. Finally, arriving at Corellia, they stopped. Or rather, took a short break. But when Jyren asked a few pointed questions to a CorSec officer that confirmed the ship had been through the system only an hour earlier, they were gone again, following the hyperspace route even deeper into the Core.    “Why go this way?” Jyren asked out loud as they sat in the cockpit yet again.    “Hmm?” for some reason, Shadow was still responding to him, despite how useless he’d been the last couple of weeks.    He leaned forward and pointed out into the nondescript blue of hyperspace, “The Hydian Way goes right by the Alderaan system. She should have jumped off the Corellia Run lightyears before Corellia.”    Shadow cleared her throat before attempting, “And maybe she’s not going to Alderaan...?”    Silence. For the first time, Jyren actually looked like he was really considering that. Finally. He finally sighed and looked to her with a helpless expression, “Then where? Coruscant’s about the only system this direction that would make any sense.”    “Then, logically, she may be going to Coruscant...?” Shadow posed this as a question, just to see if Jyren’s logic was still working in there somewhere.    “But why Coruscant?”    Maybe they were working, but they sure weren’t working hard enough. It seemed like when one thing went wrong with him, everything else started shutting down afterwards. With an exasperated sigh, Shadow threw up her hands, “I don’t know, Jyren! Why Alderaan? Why anywhere, for that matter?!”    An old instinct kicked in and Jyren’s mouth opened before his mind could comprehend just how stupid what was about to be said would be, “I’m sor—“    ”And don’t you dare finish that,” Shadow growled, now finally angry with him, “You damn well know you could be more helpful, but you just have to be stubborn and foolish. If you want to act that way, fine! But don’t expect any sympathy from me and don’t even think about trying to apologize for it!”    That shut him up. At least he had some intelligence left in there.    After taking the time to calm herself down, Shadow added, “We’re already en route to Coruscant, so we’ll get there and find out what we can, then just keep following this trail until we either lose it or reach the end.”    And in another two hours, they exited hyperspace in the Coruscant system. As usual, starships of all shapes and sizes were everywhere. Shadow was glad to take the controls from Loki and actually do something, flying them in towards the central planet in the galaxy. It felt good to actually take the controls every once in a while. Sure, she was no pilot like Jyren was, but after so long in hyperspace, it was doing something and that was all that mattered. They’d get in, land, do the usual “We’re Security Officers from planet such-and-such”, give the fake ID cards that Shadow had cooked up for them before leaving Nar Shaddaa, and then confirm whether or not the ship they were after had been around.    Of course, things were never that easy, and it was immediately apparent that Coruscant was going to be much more difficult than either of them had expected. The comm clicked, and the second Shadow hit the ‘switch’ to activate it, an odd sounding, definitely not human, voice came on, “Unidentified transport, this is Coruscant Planetary Defense. You will power down your engines and any weapons and hold your position to be boarded. Any attempt at resistance or escape will result in the full Defense Net coming down on your ship. Acknowledge this transmission by complying immediately.”    “Oh sithspit,” Jyren cursed as he glared up at the ceiling and growled a few more curses, “Should have realized Loki would be identified with us in the bounty!”    Shadow also cursed, but in about four different languages, each of which sounded worse than anything Jyren could have come up with. She then sighed and looked down at Loki’s controls, “Power the engines down, Loki, and sit tight.”    “You’re actually going to follow along?!” Jyren either sounded outraged or shocked. Shadow could couldn’t figure out which. Either way, he sounded like he was going to have a heart attack. At least Alraxians had two hearts.    “Jyren, dear, this is the heart of the New Republic. The only defense we have is that stolen X-Wing in the hold,” Shadow let that linger for a moment before looking him in the eyes, “Do you really want to tempt faint anymore than we have to?”    He looked right back into her eyes, “Then you have a plan...?”    “Of course not,” Shadow admitted with a shrug, “But just don’t do anything stupid like killing anyone else and cooperate and I might be able to talk us through this.”    “I have a bad feeling about this.”    “Funny,” she rolled her eyes, and got up to go and hide some of the weapons that were in easy to find places, “But I thought you couldn’t feel a damned thing without the Force.”</blockquote>

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