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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3219919" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 419: SurvivorsThrough everything else that was happening, there was a battle going on. A fierce one, at that. For a great deal of the battle, it looked like a stalemate, with the Vong ships simply firing away at the New Republic fleet and the two remaining Mrrakesh ships. Early on, the two smaller ships had fallen back into the New Republic lines, finding precarious positions but doing this best to add their own shots in with the flurry of turbolasers.    In the midst of it all, the Zephyrs and the other fighter squadrons were involved in a countless number of dogfights with the Vong’s coralskippers. The fighters faired well compared to what they were used to experiencing, and they could only attribute this to the smaller number of skips than most Vong fleets seem to have. But that did not make the fight any less deadly.    And when the Stardust collided with the Vong’s larger ship, the battle seemed to turn completely. Whatever they had attempted to gain by charging that direction had caused a great deal of chaos amongst the Vong fleet once it had failed to occur. The Araddon had finished off what was left of the ship before turning back, with the rest of the fleet and the two Mrrakesh cruisers, to focus fire on the remaining enemies. The repositioning that was caused by chasing down the long Vong ship meant that it was now possible to box in the rest of the Yuuzhan Vong, and because of this, the rest of the fight went fairly quickly.    It was only a matter of time before one of the smaller cruiser analogs was left, with a myriad of coralskippers and other smaller ships that seemed to be lightly armed picket ships. The ships were small enough and fast enough to break free of the New Republic fleet that was surrounding them, and after looping around through the wreckage of the Stardust and her victim, they were able to break far enough from pursuit to escape into hyperspace.    “We’ve finished recovery efforts, Admiral,” one of the comm chiefs in a crew pit of the Araddon spoke up.    Admiral Tarus nodded to the man, but instead of saying anything, turned to face the others with him. Without pause, he motioned for them to follow him, “I believe we must discuss a few things.”    A small briefing room was attached to the main bridge near the rear sensor stations, and so the Admiral led the way there. It was definitely a small room, oval shaped with a square table and too many chairs for the size of the thing. There were deactivated viewscreens on the walls and a holoprojector in the center of the table, also, but they did nothing but cause the room to feel even more cramped.    Once they’d all stepped in and the door had closed, the Admiral motioned for everyone to take a seat...though no one did. After nodding to himself, he simply stood behind a chair and looked directly across the table at the very tall Empress who had returned to the ship a few minutes earlier. He was, admittedly, surprised to see her return. Or would have been if he hadn’t been kept very up to date on the occurrences of the battle.    As he looked at this Empress whom he knew nothing about, Admiral Tarus found himself coming up with far more questions than he was comfortable with. Though she was maintaining a very passive and neutral expression on her face, he could see something else in her eyes and the way she was carrying herself. Something he couldn’t put his finger on but was sure wasn’t anything good. It was hard to be sure, though, considering her features were human but...not. Just different enough to be alien and similar enough to be familiar. An odd combination, really, but it was there.    “You’ll have to forgive me for being blunt, but there’s some questions I need answered.”    That was not the Admiral, though he was thinking the same thing. Instead, it was Rulae Nok, who was looking worse for wear after his squadron lost four of its pilots...including Captain BlueIce. Though it sometimes difficult to tell what the Duros was thinking, he was practical man and had a way of just getting to the point so no one had to wonder too long.    Instead of actually responding to him, though, the Alraxian Empress looked to the young man at her side. It was, as far as the Admiral could tell, the son of the late Captain...except that he was not currently human. In fact, the boy, who’s name was eluding the Admiral at the moment, looked to be the same species as the Empress, though nearly a head shorter than her...and his hair was a blue-black mix that might have been a stripe if it was neater.    “There are some things I cannot answer,” the Empress said, finally, in a distant voice that didn’t sound at all like the woman whom had first appeared on their ship at the start of the battle. A pair of silvery-purple eyes shifted from the Duros, then to the Jedi woman, Venda, who was on the other side of the table, and then back to the Admiral, “You have put me in an uncomfortable position. My people value our privacy. The fact that you now know where we are is dangerous enough for us.”    “I did not put you in this position,” Admiral Tarus said calmly, leaving off any title as he was not sure how to properly address her, “It was the late-Captain BlueIce that brought us here. And I do not mean to insult you, but I believe you would be in a much worse position had he not convinced me of the need to come here.”    Though he had finished the sentence, Admiral Tarus caught sight of an immediate change in the face of both the Empress and the young man with her at the mention of the Captain. There was a question on the tip of his tongue, but he was unsure of how to ask it correctly. He was no diplomat, and suddenly wished there was one on the fleet, as this was suddenly becoming a very tense place to be, in his mind.    Thankfully, though, it was Rulae who spoke up again, his two large, red eyes somehow managing to stare straight at the tall, feline woman, “If you must protect your people, then fine. But there are some things I will not let you leave here without answering,” there was a surprising coldness in the voice of the Duros, and it was suddenly very apparent how close a friend he had been with the Captain, “You are Marix, Jyren’s wife...are you not? And that boy is Tobias, isn’t he? If I have to expand this further, I can, but I think you know exactly what I want to know by now.”    For the longest of moments, the Empress’ eyes simply stared right back at Rulae, holding his gaze with a dangerous look that actually had Admiral Tarus close to calling in the Security detail. Or maybe it was also the fact that one of her hands was out of his sight and he was worrying too much....but a look from her shot his direction a moment later, and as the eyes shifted back to Rulae, the Admiral couldn’t help but notice that both of her hands became visible to him...and empty.    The silence that was holding was tense, though. While he couldn’t see it, the Admiral had been around enough tough decisions to know when one was being made. She was keeping it off of her face, but it was still there in the eyes. Human enough to read, but alien enough that he couldn’t decipher all of it.    “We are shapeshifters,” she said finally, in a matter-of-fact tone but also sounding as if the words were forced out. Tobias looked up at her with an expression of surprise, as if her saying this was something that he had definitely not expected. The Admiral noted that to himself, and made sure to pay attention as the Empress went on, “Jyren’s is a longer story than most and there is not any time to explain it nor do I care to. However, he was the man you knew...and he was my mate,” her eyes scanned the three of them a moment before adding, “As you are all suddenly having trouble trusting me or Jyren simply because you now know we can change form, you will understand why this is something we have done our best to keep to ourselves.”    “I apologize, but you haven’t done a very good job at it,” Rulae cut in, not looking at all sorry for what he had said despite the preface.    Marix gave him the same look from before, then simply shook her head, “Jyren has a way of making everything difficult.”    It was amazing how one sentence could lighten an entire air of tension...but that one did. In a moment, they were all sure that this Jyren was the same one and not just something out of the old stories about shapeshifters.  But then the Admiral saw something in her that surprised him. There was a change. The hardness that had held the entire time faded for the shortest of moments, and when she turned to face him again, he saw an expression he always hated to see so much, as it always came with the question she asked.    “Did you find him in your recovery efforts?”    The question itself felt like a knife, as there was suddenly no avoiding it. But Admiral Tarus looked straight into her eyes, holding as straight a face as he could, “We recovered five of our starfighter pilots, twenty seven members of one of the ships we lost, and thirty three from one of your ships before it was destroyed.”    “You didn’t answer the question,” that was Tobias, who hadn’t said a word the entire time. His voice sounded hoarse and all together about as much of a mess as he looked.    Admiral Tarus closed his eyes for a long moment and took a few calming breaths. When he opened his eyes again, he looked up to the Empress for a second time, “We recovered who we could from the evacuees of the Stardust. Most of the crew was killed trying to reach the escape pods, but a third of them managed to get off the ship and were brought aboard the Araddon just a few moments again...” he paused for as long as he could, then finally went on, “Our shuttles made thorough checks of the wreckage as we were detecting many distress beacons...also, Jedi Venda aided our recovery efforts with her abilities in the Force...I am sorry, but Captain BlueIce was not among the survivors.”</blockquote>

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