Chapter 7   Neskroff and Trouble With the Handree

Neskroff was shining like a jewel in the night as the party approached the front gate. It was much bigger than any of them initially thought. It seemed that the huge Rebel starport was busy with traffic of all sorts.

"Well, here we are. This is Neskroff," Tolian announced as they walked up to the front gate. "At least we’ve made it to our original destination."

"I’ll give you that," Andromeda said quietly as they stepped up to greet the captain of the guard.

"Halt!" the captain ordered. "State your business!"

"We’re here on Alliance business. We’re the crew of the Redeemer, but our ship has crashed into the canyon while in pursuit of Imperials. Unfortunately, we’ve traced their whereabouts to here. You must shut down the starport!" Tolian began excitedly.

"Ah, yes. The Redeemer. I’ve heard of you guys. There were reports made that your ship was found, but there was no trace of you. Where on Isis have you guys been? You didn’t get mixed up with the natives, did you? Oh, well. No biggie. At least your all here safe and sound! But I don’t know about the starport. That’s an awful lot to ask," the captain let them in. "Imperials, you say? I haven’t heard any reports and they definitely haven’t come through this gate! But then, your ship was the only one that was found. Maybe the natives got to it before we did."

"We have reason to believe that they are here!" Andromeda seemed to tense up and her eyes were glancing about everywhere.

"Captain Tessas! We have Imperials loose on the base!" a frantic voice came over his comlink. Andromeda said nothing, but threw him a look of "I told you so!"

"Roger that! Close down the starport to where absolutely no traffic gets in or out! Enforce the curfew and make sure that everyone is to remain indoors!" Captain Tessas ordered into his comlink.

"You three stay here to guard the gate," he indicated his officers he had with him. "You newcomers come with me. You probably know what these guys look like! My guess is that they’re headed for the starport! Close down the starport!" No one said anything as they took off down the street on foot at full speed.

They hadn’t the slightest idea as to where they should start looking, but the opportunity presented itself as yelling and laser fire was happening down an alleyway to their left. Wordlessly, they darted down between some buildings, entering the intricate maze of the city, weapons drawn in determination to stop the intruding Imperials.

They were nearly too late as they rounded another corner. The skirmish they heard earlier was at a close with three Rebel officers down and the Imperials were impatiently waiting for a turbo-lift. They were too far away to get a legitimate shot off on them. There were six of them huddled down at the end of the corridor.

Maharet ran forward and fired off a shot, successfully picking off the Imperial closest to her. He fell to the ground in an uncoordinated heap and out of self defense the Imperials returned fire—all except for one woman who stood to the back of the group, holding onto some kind of package. Andromeda only assumed that this was Captain Tonth.

The firefight was a futile one as the remaining Imperials got onto the lift. Captain Tonth was smiling a triumphant smile that held no amusement as the doors closed in front of her. Captain Tessas was on his comlink to his officers to collect the fallen Imperial and put the starport on alert. He instantly led the way out to alternate lift that lead up to the starport.

As they reached the top, the starport seemed to be almost deserted except for the stock-light freighter that was firing up its engines and the ground crew that was scrambling to get out of its way.

"That’s the Handree. We’ve got to stop them!" Tolian darted forward. "That’s got all the Alliance’s medical supplies on there!" Slowly, the tractor beams that held the ship to the ground were beginning to retract. Ground crew seemed to be watching helplessly. Maharet ran forward and with a great leap upward, caught a beam and began to "swim" up it. Kosh made it under the beam and through the Force he levitated himself upward, much to the "oohs" and "ahhhs" of the ground crew. Andromeda and Zaron jumped onto the nearest speeder bike and drove it up into the beam and Tolian followed suit. They made it into a tech bay of the ship just as the beams disappeared and the Handree began to move out of the starport.

"I thought we were escorting this thing, not going along as passengers!" Kosh muttered as they crowded into the 4x5-tech bay. Zaron was busy at work trying to get the door open.

"Does it feel warm in here to you?" Maharet mentioned.

"With all that fur, I’m not surprised. But come to think of it, I would say it’s getting stuffy in here!" Andromeda said in agreement.

"Shh!" Tolian silenced them irritably.

"Can’t get it! They’ve tampered with this lock as if they were expecting us!" Zaron moved away thoroughly frustrated.

"Everyone back up!" Kosh ignited his saber again. He sliced through the door as if it weren’t there, creating a wide enough hole for all of them to crawl through.

"Where do you think we are?" Maharet asked as they came out of the tech bay.

"My guess would be engineering," Zaron was looking the place over. "Uh-oh."

"Uh-oh? Excuse you, that’s my line! What could you possibly uh-oh about?" Andromeda seemed to be instantly uneasy as the ship slammed into light-speed and the group slammed into the floor.

"Big uh-oh. They’re headed for DeMizer out in the Bespin system. That’s an Imperial garrison if I’m not mistaken," Zaron said as he picked himself up and bent over the computer console, his hands flying over it.

"Doesn’t sound like that big of an uh-oh," Andromeda shrugged off her uneasiness with a big sigh.

"Uh-uh. The big uh-oh is that they’ve just fried the hyperdrive. It’s done for. Once they reach their destination, it won’t fire up again. We could take over the ship but we would have no where to run because we can’t run!" Zaron said almost resignedly. "According to this, we’ll be there in about twelve hours."

"They’ve got to be stopped before they destroy anything else!" Tolian drew his blaster and took off for the bridge. Andromeda followed. Zaron and the others took off for the cargo bay.

It was an easy task to pick off the guard to the cargo bay and Maharet dragged him off without protest and threw him in the ship’s brig. As Kosh and Zaron entered the cargo bay, they were surprised at the sight that met them.

The cargo bay doors were wide open to the space beyond, but the only thing keeping the cargo from flying out was the magnetic seals that were only in place when the hyper drive engines were engaged. Once they came out of light speed, the seals would turn off, the air would get sucked out along with everything else and the cargo would go floating out into space. Zaron was instantly investigating the controls that were smashed almost beyond recognition.

"Can you fix it?" Kosh asked.

"Yes, but I will need parts to do it. This thing takes what’s called EAU chips. You can find them all over the ship—in replicators, in control panels—just about anything. However, I only need certain kinds with certain number of circuits on them," Zaron explained as he held up a damaged chip.

"I will find the others and we will tear the ship apart for them," Kosh said and turned to go.

"Just be careful as to what you pull apart," Zaron warned.

Meanwhile, Tolian and Andromeda headed for the bridge and were horrified to learn that any and all controls were fried. They came upon an Imperial woman who was too absorbed in her task of pulling wires to give them any notice.

"Stop!" Andromeda commanded, but the woman looked up, continuing to pull wires and went back to what she was doing with a smile. Andromeda fired off a shot killing the Imperial officer instantly. As she took time to only move the body out of the way, she inspected the mess of wires.

"Just great!" she griped. "She’s rendered this thing completely dead in the water! I don’t think that even Zaron could fix this mess in time! She knew exactly what she was pulling! Aside from life support and some lights, nothing will respond. If we yank this thing out of light speed now, we risk the chance of blowing up once we reenter real space. All we can do now is sit back and enjoy the ride."

"Sit back nothing! There’s still Imperials aboard this ship. We’ve got to find them!" Tolian turned to leave the bridge. "Must stop Captain Tonth! Or did that escape your memory?" Andromeda said nothing and growled something inaudibly almost under her breath as she followed him out.

"Maybe we’d better check on the others," Tolian headed for the cargo bay where they caught up with Maharet, Kosh and Zaron, who explained the situation.

"There’s still three of those Imperials aboard. We’ve got to find them as well as these chips," Maharet pointed out.

"And I’m guessing that at least two of them are close by. No one has tried to get past me," Zaron said as he began to fiddle with the chips that Kosh had found for him already. Maharet and Tolian took off for the far end of the cargo bay in search of the other Imperials. Kosh and Andromeda went back out to look for more chips and for the remaining Imperial.

After about eight and a half hours of exhaustive searching, two more Imperials were put in the brig and all the necessary chips were found. Zaron let out a huge sigh of relief as did they all, as the cargo bay doors slammed shut.

"The cargo is safe for now!" Zaron said proudly. "There’s about three hours to spare!"

"And about three hours to find Captain Tonth and her little black box!" Andromeda had her weapon ready. "If we split up, we can find her much faster that way!"

"Well, you guys can go look for her if you want, but I’m going to see what I can do up on the bridge. I know I won’t be able to restore everything, but at least we’ll be able to maneuver a little—maybe," Zaron said as he gathered up what tools he had.

"I’ll be going with him," Kosh said quietly. Tolian, Maharet and Andromeda took off in separate directions to scour the ship for the elusive Captain Tonth.

After nearly two and a half hours later and no results in searching, they were about to give up. Andromeda was determined to find her prey but was having no luck and she was becoming more and more frustrated with every passing moment.

She quietly entered one of the crew quarters and was reaching for a light switch when she felt a laser bolt glance off her shoulder. It took her so by surprise that when she fired off a shot of her own she missed Tonth who had emerged from her hiding place in the closet.

In the semi-darkness Andromeda could see Tonth smiling the same smile she had seen earlier. Tonth fired off another shot and Andromeda tried her best to dodge it but felt the bolt strike her in the leg that instantly lost feeling and it knocked her to her knees.

"A little backup! Crew quarters, and hurry!" Andromeda called into the comlink as she fired of another shot but only managed to strike Tonth in the foot.

"Pathetic Rebel Scum! Sweet dreams!" Tonth fired another shot and Andromeda could not move out of its path. She felt the stun hit her square in the back and she passed out. Captain Tonth wasted no time and went to find another hiding place.

Minutes later the Handree came out of light-speed and into the company of a star destroyer, which instantly locked on with a tractor beam and pulled them up inside. There was no escaping now. It was only a matter of minutes before a squadron of Storm Troopers came aboard to take possession and to arrest the Rebels that were hiding aboard her.

Captain Tonth pointed out Andromeda to them with no problem. It took a little longer for them to find Zaron, Tolian, Maharet and Kosh, who were all hiding out. Zaron tried to put up a valiant struggle but it was a futile attempt and got himself wounded in the process. They were immediately put in binders, boarded onto a transport and taken down to the Imperial garrison on DeMizer.

It was then that Andromeda finally came around. Panic threatened to overtake her as she took in her surroundings and realized that she was in custody once again for the second time in her life. For a moment, she thought she was back on the prison transport bound for Rordak. Wildly, she looked for Uncle Tolian who was quietly seated beside her.

"Hush," was all he said as she fought to calm down and regulate her breathing. Her heart was going ninety miles an hour. She glanced over at Maharet and then over to Kosh. Did they know what he was? She looked over at Zaron, who was once again nursing that old battle wound he had gotten in escaping Rordak. He appeared to be trying to sleep it off. She felt somewhat comforted in the fact that she was with her comrades this time. But deep down inside, the knot in her stomach grew as her thoughts turned to other possibilities. What if they realize we’re the ones who’ve escaped Rordak? What if they discover who I am? What if they realize that Admiral Maricson has that bounty out for my head?

Andromeda was beginning to feel lousier as the shuttle touched down on DeMizer’s surface and they got off the shuttle. They were all marched to a holding cell. Zaron headed for the nearest bunk and settled himself carefully down for a nap. Maharet simply settled herself against the darkest corner and tried to blend in. Andromeda headed for the back of the cell and sat down. Kosh seemed to be the calmest one as he entered the cell and stood placidly by the door. Tolian brought up the rear and retreated to the back of the cell with Andromeda. Neither one spoke a word and seemed to take a kind of comfort in the other’s presence.

It didn’t seem very long before a couple of Storm Troopers and Imperial officers returned with a high-ranking officer and entered the cell. Tolian noted that by the buttons on the officer’s tunic that this was a general. Andromeda was staying behind him, keeping her eyes down and trying to look unassuming.

He glanced around at the prisoners. Tolian had purposefully put himself between the general and Andromeda, hoping the same trick would work again as it had once before when dealing with Viscas, but not this time.

"Her. She will do," the general pointed in Andromeda’s direction.

Andromeda’s head snapped up involuntarily, her eyes went wide and she shook her head in protest. Vainly she tried to struggle as the two Storm Troopers roughly pushed Tolian aside and took her firmly by the arms.

"No!" she cried out and tried vainly to duck out of the way but was unsuccessful. "If my hands were free, you’d be Bantha Fodder!" She continued to struggle.

"You can’t do that!" Tolian felt a surge of panic as they pushed the struggling Andromeda toward the door and tried to block their way, but one of the Imperial officers stopped him.

"You can’t do anything for her like this! Pile of chains. Mag-key in the box. Combo 1-7-6," He quickly turned and left the cell again. Tolian looked around. There was a pile of old chains beneath Zaron’s bunk. He looked over to the officer again with a puzzled look and gave Andromeda one last helpless look.

"Uncle…" her voice faltered as she was shoved out the door. Her bound hands seemed to reach out toward him but he was too far away. She tried to act tough but the frightened look in her eye and the way her voice faltered told him of her fear. He felt so helpless. He couldn’t be there to save his daughter and now he couldn’t be there to save what only family he had left—the only family he had vowed to protect.

Andromeda was determined not to go quietly at any cost despite the steely grip of the Storm Troopers. They dragged her into a dark room and with some effort strapped her down to a chair. It was only then that she stopped struggling and caught her breath.

"That’s better," the general said quietly from the shadows beyond. There was only one light that illuminated the room and it was in Andromeda’s face. She was aware of the officers that flanked either side of her and was also aware that there were Storm Troopers as well.

"Who are you?" she dared to ask.

"Ah, yes. My manners. What kind of a host am I? I’m General Dronquas," he replied smoothly. "And I believe you’ve met Captain Tonth." Andromeda stiffened in her seat.

"And you make a lousy host," Andromeda spat. Her wisecrack got her a backhanded smack across her face. Her face stung and her eye felt as if it would explode.

"Here’s the drill. I ask the questions and you answer them. Failure to answer results in pain, got it?" General Dronquas pushed what looked like a hovering bowling ball forward but Andromeda understood it to be an interrogation droid of some sort and its appendage seemed to reach out for her neck. Andromeda stained slightly against her restraints.

"Consider yourself lucky if you get anything out of me!" she growled.

"All we want out of you is the coordinates to the planet Isis. What are they? Where is it?" the general asked.

"It should be all on your little black box," Andromeda answered smartly and buttoned her lip. The droid painfully administered truth serum, causing Andromeda to cry out. The needle felt hot and the injection felt like a hundred bee stings that ran from her neck and down her shoulder. She was suddenly feeling a little more relaxed and not as alert as before but fear still coursed through her veins.

"Who are you?" Captain Tonth’s voice floated towards her.

"Nobody," Andromeda replied promptly. She figured they would have to damn near kill her before they realized who she was.

"You’re a pilot, are you not? Who trained you? Imperial or Rebel? You must have flown to Isis before, so you must know where it is. Where is it?" General Dronquas was leering over the table at her.

"Pilot," Andromeda murmured but said nothing further. The droid came forward again and administered more drugs. Andromeda gritted her teeth to squelch the forthcoming cry but to no avail. She found herself gasping for breath and trying to brace her feet against the floor.

"The coordinates, pilot!" Captain Tonth’s voice was rising with impatience. Andromeda’s eyes began to water and smart. She wasn’t sure how long she could keep it up. Would they get the information out of her? or would she wind up dying for the Rebel cause?

"Far away," she gasped out. A smack landed across her face.

"Phen Sector," Andromeda gasped.

Captain Tonth gave an exasperated sigh. "We already knew that!" Andromeda dared a smile that held no amusement. Tonth saw it and smacked her again.

"Captain!" the general snapped. "I’m doing the interrogating if you don’t mind!"

Unfortunately for Andromeda it went like that for about the next fifteen minutes and it felt like hours. General Dronquas asking the questions, Andromeda keeping her lip zipped and getting punished for it. She was beginning to feel the major effects of the drugs and was feeling perfectly lousy. The pain being inflicted upon her was nearly unbearable! If she only had her hands free, she’d knock the general and Captain Tonth into next week! She felt just about ready to give in when the door suddenly opened and to her relief and surprise, her comrades came rushing in with blasters blazing. They engaged the Storm Troopers and the Imperial officers in gunfire and to Andromeda’s surprise, the Imperial officer who flanked her right side was picking shots off at the Storm Troopers. Captain Tonth shrieked in surprise and drew her blaster but found herself diving for cover. General Dronquas wasn’t going to stick around for any of it, so he dashed out of the room out of a door at the far end.

Storm Troopers were beginning to fall and the Imperial officer-turned-Rebel turned his blaster on Tonth. He fired off a shot and managed to stun her and when she went to return fire, her shot went wide and hit Andromeda instead, who cried out more in protest and only suffered stun damage. When she saw her chance, Captain Tonth escaped and followed the general out. The fight was all over for the moment.

"Llellandra! Are you alright?" Tolian came to her rescue and got her out of the seat. "They had me so worried! Did they hurt you? What did they want?"

"I’m a little worse for wear, but I’m alright," Andromeda replied as she tried to stand up. She found that she was leaning heavily upon Tolian. "They were trying to get the location of Isis out of me. I didn’t say anything they didn’t already know. Just give me a moment and I’ll be okay."

The reunion was short lived as armor was taken from the fallen Storm Troopers and put on as a disguise. The Imperial officer revealed himself to be Blaze, an undercover Rebel agent and joined them on getting the heck off of DeMizer. Maharet instantly went into her favorite "sneak" mode and seemed to disappear as she began to go after the general. They almost had to laugh as Kosh put his armor on. His green hands were a real contrast against the white armor.

"Hopefully, no one will notice," was all he said as he picked up a weapon.

"Let’s hope not. We’ve got to get to the Handree. They’ve got her aboard the Desolator," Blaze waved them out. "Maybe we can slip by the guard and get the Handree off before they get into light speed."

They took off down a cavern that split off in two different directions. Wordlessly, they followed Andromeda’s lead and went to the right. They had no idea where they were going, but by some kind of miracle, they made it out of the caverns.

"Where’s General Dronquas?" Andromeda asked almost timidly. She couldn’t see him anywhere. All that could be seen was a lounge area where Troopers were either going on their shift of coming off it. Just beyond was a shuttle that was undoubtedly taking troops up to the awaiting Desolator.

Tolian tapped Andromeda’s elbow and indicated the guard that was on duty. She knew what she had to do. With Tolian just behind her for cover, she boldly strode up to the guard and caught his attention with a salute.

"I’m here to relieve you of your post sir," she said.

"What? I wasn’t notified of this," the Trooper was suddenly defensive and suspicious. His hand began to go for his blaster.

"It just came down from Command just a few minutes ago. General Dronquas was requesting extra back up with some unruly prisoners," Andromeda stood at attention and made no move for her weapon. She feared that it would definitely make the situation look more suspicious if it didn’t already.

"Why haven’t I heard anything? Why wasn’t the station put on alert?" he replied.

"Sir, who am I to question the orders of Command? I just follow them! I’m sure that the station will be put on alert momentarily," Andromeda shrugged. The Trooper nodded, signaled to his men and they took off into the cavern from the direction that they had just come.

No sooner did the Storm Troopers disappear then out came General Dronquas, followed closely by Captain Tonth. Andromeda was so tempted to just drill her on the spot but thought otherwise.

"Oh, thank goodness!" General Dronquas was nearly breathless. "There are prisoners on the loose! They are not to get by here, understand?"

"Yes, sir! I’ve just sent my best men to deal with it!" Tolian piped up.

"Good man. Come along, then. We must get out of here!" the general and Captain Tonth boarded the shuttle and they followed. They were happy over the fact that Dronquas and Tonth were too busy getting away to be bothered with procedure and protocol. It was easy for Maharet to sneak on board unnoticed. But they weren’t out of the woods. There were still eight other Storm Troopers aboard the shuttle.

It was a quiet fifteen-minute ride and the shuttle landed in the same docking bay where the Handree was parked. They disembarked from the shuttle; Captain Tonth and General Dronquas in a hurry to be underway and the other Troopers slowly making their way from the docking bay. Only five of them were staying behind.

"Hey, you guys! You know that it’s against regulations to be in a docking bay when we jump to light-speed," one called after them.

"General Dronquas asked us to secure the shuttle and to do a final check of the Rebel ship," Zaron spoke up for the first time. "Don’t worry about us. We’ll be in before we make the jump." The reply seemed to satisfy the Trooper, who continued on his way. Zaron waited for the door to close behind him before locking the door and shooting out the controls to insure that there would be no interruptions. He removed his helmet and was examining the closest computer terminal.

"What’s the prognosis, doctor?" Maharet asked as she tried to look on over his shoulder.

"Pretty grim. They’ll be making the jump to light-speed in about twenty minutes or so. They’ve got their coordinates set for some base way the heck out on the outer rim. If I can successfully reprogram their hyperdrive before they make the jump and we get off of this thing with the Handree, they’ll land in some sun or collide with a comet or something," Zaron was already beginning to let his fingers fly over the keys, breaking into the system. Andromeda followed Tolian into the Handree to get her flight-ready. She decided that she was beginning to feel much better. Kosh also retreated into the ship, and headed straight for the cargo bay. In only moments he made his way to the bridge to join Andromeda and Tolian.

"I see you’ve found your saber. Good for you!" Tolian smiled at him. Kosh smiled in return and stood back to survey the bridge.

"I think she’s gonna fly. Her hyperdrive is still shot, but we won’t need it. Looks like they’ve done some repairs on her, thankfully," Andromeda began to fiddle with the controls.

"Looks like we’ll actually be able to fly away. We can probably limp to the nearest Rebel base and save her from there. If you want to get yourself comfortable, we’ll be leaving as soon as Zaron finishes up," Tolian returned to the console.

"Well, I’ve done just about all I can do. I’m going to check on Zaron," Andromeda strapped the carbine in its holster and began to make her way out. She paused by the door and turned to Tolian and Kosh.

"Thanks for coming after me, you guys," she said quietly before continuing out.

Down at the computer terminal it appeared that both Zaron and Maharet were hard at work. They were working on reprogramming the hyperdrive. They appeared so busy that Andromeda was almost afraid to interrupt. She turned to Blaze who was watching.

"Almost there. You guys have got about ten minutes," he called over Maharet’s shoulder. He was playing timekeeper. Figuring that she would only get in the way, she made her way back onto the ship to nurse her aches and pains that were stemming from her neck.

"We’ve got it! Fire it up!" Maharet’s voice frantically came over the comlink.

"Blaze! Are you guys in?" Tolian called.

"Got it! We’re all in! Get us out of here!" There was a great sense of urgency to his voice.

Andromeda got the Handree to lift off and backed her out of the docking bay. Her heart was nearly in her throat as the Desolator jumped to light-speed, taking the Handree’s reflector dish with it. A great cry of joy and relief went around.

"Way to go, you guys! You did it!" Andromeda cheered as she brought the ship around and pointed it toward the planet Remik.

"Well, you guys have managed to save Isis. Looks as though you’ll make a success of your mission after all," Blaze said with a smile. "We’ll have the Handree repaired in no time!"

Thankfully, that’s all it took. The ship was repaired and they were flown back to Isis. The Redeemer was dug out and brought to Neskroff and running the newly repaired Handree through the blockade and to her destination went off without a hitch.

Seeing Yavin 4 again was a welcome sight. Traffic was sparse, since the Rebels were still busy moving their base to Palmonar and there was a skeleton crew running things.

Blaze and Kosh took their report back to Rebel Command and upon getting the report and hearing that the team had gone above and beyond the call of duty to recover the Handree, Command issued them a medal of bravery and a small paycheck bonus.

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*Chapters 6 & 7 based off of the Isis Coordinates module for the Star Wars RPG.  No Copyright infringement intended, honest!!  No profits being made, either!!