Part 4: The Beginning
It had been roughly three days since Nico had left Dantooine and everything he had held dear in search for a future that may or not exist. At any rate, Nicodemus was closing in on his destination. The past days had been difficult. He had lived in a haze between sleeplessness and a daze. When was trying to stay awake, he thought about his past and his future. When he tried to sleep, he was kept awake for the same reasons. However, he was now only a short trip from his location. At the controls, he slumped into the piolet’s seat. He brought up his current location as well as the distance from his destination. He shook his head from side to side, partially to try to wake up, but also because he couldn’t believe he was actually doing this. From there, he brought up surrounding systems. The screen flickered for a brief moment before the points were plotted in a greenish haze. All the surrounding features were represented, and a frown creased his face as he examined them. According to the charts, if something were to happen to him, and he needed to send for help, it would take at least a several hour hyperspace jump before he hit anything resembling civilization. He was going to be on his own, or at least so he thought.
A few hours later, he dropped out of hyperspace directly in front of his destination. If Nicodemus could possibly feel worse about this situation, this would have been the time. He visually examined the small planet before he punched some information into the computer. He was rewarded with a readout describing the planet. After inspecting the climate and weather patterns of the planet’s surface, as well checking to make sure it was oxygen rich, he began examining other factors, such as seismic activity and local life forms. Studying the planet that was soon to be his home for an indefinite time period put Nico on edge. Being uncertain about the situation was expected, but at the same time, he had a gut feeling that this was the place he was meant to be. For some reason, it was rapidly feeling more and more like home.
Nico studied the planet for a few hours as he entered a shallow orbit. It would take him a bit longer before he was over the location that was given to him, and he needed to be prepared for anything before he landed. That, and the preparation helped ease the butterflies in his stomach. The planet itself was distant from settlements, but also a long way from any Imperial outposts. The planet didn’t have a name, but was assigned a number. Planets that were of little consequence usually didn’t get fancy or meaningful names. This nameless rock was orbiting a single star in a deep elliptical orbit, and tilted oddly on it’s axis. From the computer calculations, where Nico would be staying the days were going to be rather short, favoring longer nights that would last roughly twenty standard hours followed by a two hour period of light. The gravity was also going to be slightly less than average.
“Well,” Nico said out loud to himself, “I probably needed to drop a few pounds anyway.” He then read a bit more about the planet and shook his head. “The more I look at this the more I regret ever leaving. Oh, Saede, what have I gotten myself into?” He thought about how, if she were there, she would hug him and tell him that everything was going to be alright. Of course, she wasn’t there, so Nico found himself hugging his own elbows for comfort. He looked down at his lap until he took the controls and began taking the ship out of orbit.
He hit the boosters a few times to speed the trip along as he descended on his target location. The weather was almost nonexistent as he entered the atmosphere. Clouds were sparse, and he had been lucky enough to catch his drop point during the last hour of light. The sun was just past it’s zenith and as he looked at it, he could watch as it sank. The sky was so blue, that he thought he could look at it forever. As he looked at the ground, he noted that it shouldn’t be too rough of a landing. He also noted with a grim stare that there was no real landing pad to speak of, or settlement for that matter. Perhaps it would be a bit of a walk before he found where he needed to be. As he approached the ground he cut in the repusorlifts and extended the landing pads from the belly of the ship. Nico brought the ship onto the surface of his nameless home as gently as he could. With a deep groan, the ground yielded more than he had expected. It would be a bit tricky lifting off again, but he thought it wouldn’t be anything too challenging. Nico made sure to turn on the running lights of the ship, and shut down all of the flight controls.
When Nicodemus opened the landing platform, he expected to see his future stretching out before him. On the long trip to this precise location, he had envisioned an epic landscape symbolizing the destiny he was now finally caught up to. Perhaps what he did see was a synonym for his destiny, but it made his heart sink down to his feet. The scape was totally desolate as far as he could see. There was nothing indicating settlements, geography, or even a single landmark. The land was completely barren. A pure, untouched, white scape burned his eyes as he looked at it. Nico kicked the ramp several times so it would sink lower into the snow, hopefully enabling him to crawl out of the Star Stealer. The snow was still loose, and the ship had sunk up to her belly in the drift. Unable to simply kick the ramp down, Nico spent several minuets digging under the ramp with his hands in order to create enough space for him to slide outside. He exited the craft and the bitter cold stung his face, causing it to go instantly numb. Although the computer said that it was -38 degrees outside, he now had a unique understanding of exactly how cold that really was. After taking several steps and sinking nearly to his thighs in snow, Nico trudged back to the landing ramp and closed the hatch.
It took several minuets for him to heat back up. A change of clothes was required, for even his boots were filled with snow after that short excursion. By the time he was ready to venture outside for another look, the sun was sinking low in the sky. This time, Nicodemus prepared what winter gear he had and bundled himself from head to toe. He trudged through the snow, trying to walk on the top of it, but failing miserably. When he got several meters out from the ship, and as the sun turned the sky orange, Nico scanned the horizon with his electrobinoculars for any sign of life, and saw nothing.
Nico sat at the bar with a hot cup of stim tea and thought about his options. He had landed on this nameless ice cube three days and he saw no sign of life. According to the ships computers, he was still right on the exact spot he was told to be, so finding nothing made no sense. During that time he had burned a considerable amount of power keeping th ship warm enough to live in. He had ventured outside several times, and even had gone to the length of cleaning ice and snow off of the observation deck windows to get an elevated look at the area. Every time he looked around for even a sign of life, he saw nothing. Earlier today, he had finally given up hope for this location and decided to fly over the planet and look for life forms. The scanners on the ship picked up nothing, but he had to at least look things over before he just left. When he had tried to take off, however, Nico knew he was in a world of trouble. The repusorlifts had strained and the horrible grinding sound indicated his landing pads were a solid hunk of ice, frozen solid to the surface of the planet. He spent the remaining daylight looking over the situation, and found it to be worse than he had thought. The entire belly of the ship was stuck to the surface of the planet, and after some effort at trying to chip the ice away, Nico calculated that it would take weeks of work in order to get all the way down to the landing pads. After taking inventory of his supplies, he noted that he could spread the food he brought thinly enough to last him well over the time required, but the ship would run out of power within several weeks. The long hyperspace trip combined with the need for constant heating meant that Nico was going to have a very cold death within 10 days. Any time after that, and he would not have enough power to get to a settlement where he could resupply himself. Things were looking as bleak as the harsh weather.
Nico spent all his available time digging the ship, literally, and himself figuratively out of the hole they were respectively in. While he was outside during the short days, and large portions of the insanely cold nights working, he kept the ships power nearly off. He would come inside and heat the ship to a less lethal temperature, sleep, warm himself up as much as he could, eat what little food he had apportioned himself, and try to work again. After eight days of this, Nico awoke and noticed that his toes were starting to shift color. He had gotten used to the constant frost bite, but it finally looked as if the cold was going to claim some of his digits. Nico sat in a chair and finally let himself cry. His hope was dashed. The prospect of death no longer dwelt in the reaches of possibility, but was well within probability. Progress was made in digging the ship out, but not enough. He was stuck with the choice of freezing to death because the ship wasn’t dug out, or digging the ship out behind schedule and not having enough juice to leave the planet.
Nicodemus thought then about home. He thought about all the good times he and Greenbacca could have had together. He thought about Saede and how much he missed her.
“One way or another, I’m getting out of here.” The statement was spit out through clenched teeth. With that, Nico stormed to the controls of the ship. He turned the power up from life support mode and made ready for take off. He jammed the controls and tried to force the ship free, but it wouldn’t budge. The only difference between this attempt, and the one he had made days ago is that Nico no longer cared about the horrible sound the Star Stealer made as it tried to break itself free. His face was mixed with grim resolve and extreme fatigue as he only increased power to the repusorlifts. The groaning and straining increased, but Nico was beyond care. If he broke the ship, it wouldn’t matter in the slightest.
Without warning, the ship buckled. Nico jumped at the sudden movement, and shut down the lifts. When the ship settled down again, it was listing heavily on it’s rear port side. When he went to check it out, Nico couldn’t see any damage from the inside of the ship, so he put on his layers and went outside. From a quick inspection, it was clear that the ship had cracked some of the ice away from the rear section, but was still securely fastened to the ground. On the side that was listing, however, Nico was stunned at what he saw. A large portion of ice had broken away and fallen down into some sort of cavern. The landing pad could be seen clearly, still caked with ice. The whole ship was leaning toward the gaping whole, as the landing pad on that side was a meter lower than the others. Nico inspected the opening and saw that it was quite spacious, but not very deep. He attached a cable to the ship and slid down into the cavern.
Nico switched on small survival lamp and looked around in the darkness. The cavern was nearly 60 meters around. From where Nico was standing, he could see two passages on nearly opposite sides of cave. Upon inspection, Nico was ecstatic to see footprints leading down one of the passages. He nearly wept with joy at the discovery, not giving any thought that the prints might be years old. He had momentarily forgotten that his ship was still stuck and that he was slowly freezing to death. He fought the urge to run headlong down the narrow passage, and instead carefully worked his way along the winding path. In several places, the ceiling came so low, he was forced to crawl. After several long minuets of travel, Nico noticed that he was heading increasingly downward.
If Nicodemus thought he was happy when he found footprints, he couldn’t begin to describe his joy when he saw a soft light filtering from an unseen room ahead of him. He trotted along for a bit longer before the passage opened into a spacious chamber. The pocket looked to be natural, but was nearly 200 meters from floor to ceiling and just as wide. Inside this area, there was every indication of an inhabitant. A small fence made of scrap wood stood by the entrance, and a garden growing rows upon rows of some strange plant was on the far side, under some dim heat lamps. There was a domed structure that looked prefabricated in the center of cavern, and next to it was a figure. Nico hardly had time to take a step before the voice called out to him.
“Doesn’t anyone ever knock anymore?”
Continue onto Part 5
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