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Darth Turbogeek
Oct 21st, 2000, 04:05:04 AM
Yes, it's coming..... Here's a Bit!

---


Gregori Paladin took a careful look above the crumbled wall, looking cautiously as he assessed both the area and also the cover he could use to cross what had been a boulevard, now just a mess of rubble and debris, mist swirling amongst the ruins. Now in his fourth week of being stranded on his planet, he had become somewhat bold, living by his wits to not only fight the monsters he encounters now and then, but also to fight and sometimes defeat them as well. The Light Sabre he held in his hand was a comfort, the only weapon he had found that actually worked on these huge lizard things that seemed to come from nowhere to try and kill him. No he reassessed, not kill. More like capture. The beasts that had so brutally killed his friend and smuggling contact seemed more interested in keeping him alive, for what reason he could not know.

Whatever it was, he was glad of the chance to live. It gave the rescue he was certain was coming, sent at the beginning of his time on this hell hole, sent to whom he wasn’t sure as the comm. unit was preset. The actual unit had been given to him years ago with instructions not to use unless in dire need. Well, being on a planet full of ravenous beasts was probably about as dire as you could get. Funny thing was, even though not a hint of rescue had come, he was still certain had heard and was at this point coming for him and all he had to do was to survive a little longer. Of course, considering the situation that was not an easy thing to do, but he still wasn’t doing too bad for himself. 5 of the beasts had fallen to the sabre he carried, two others to traps he had set. More grateful to the danger sense he was developing, the ability to predict with unerring accuracy when one of these beasts was going to find him out. More than once it had saved him, other times giving him time to escape into hiding. Right now, that unusual sense was quiet, but still he was alert and nerves on edge, watching for any hint that danger was near.

Nothing. He began to move quietly, going to the place he had discovered was a reliable clean water source for his twice weekly filling of the water containers he had salvaged. Other places he had found supplies of combustibles for a fire and he had also acquired a few long life rations from his disabled ship.

Course, if I got real hungry I could have bite out of one of the monsters.

Yeah, there was that too. He was becoming more and more certain by the day he could survive and that had lead to a certain calmness and acceptance of this situation. No longer imprisioned by terror, his sleep was somewhat better and he was enjoying this to a certain extent. At least no damn Bounty Hunters were chasing him. Humph. Small thanks for small mercies.

He reached the place where a spring had uncovered itself and bubbled clear water, ready for the taking. He got down on his knees, began to fill his water bottles, while at the same time keeping alert for the ever present dangers of the situation. Just because he was getting confident of surviving didn’t mean he was going to take anything for granted. Relax too much he knew and you were likely to wind up dead. The final bottle was filling when his new danger sense suddenly began it’s now familiar prickle at the back of his head. Instantly grabbing for the light sabre, his senses went to maximum alertness, trying to find out from where the danger was coming from and in which form it was taking this time. He ducked behind a debris outcropping, dropping low to the ground as he waited for the danger he had detected to become obvious.

A moment later, the Vog’on came into view, moving purposely past Paladin’s hiding place and stomping into the fog again. Paladin waited a few mores seconds, quietly stood up as he put the lightsabre away. For some reason, he always felt calmness helped him detect danger and also calmness helped him at the times he had to fight to stay alive. He bent down, picked up his water bottles and quietly moved away, heading back towards his hideout.

A small puff of wind made the fog swirl, but other than that, the place seemed to be as dead as it had been for the last 7 years.

You tell me he was here?

Yeeeesssss, I deteatedddd hisssss scenttt.

An human surveyed the area. I don’t not detect him anywhere near here. You were not mistaken?

Nooooo. I doooo not make mistakesssss.

The human contined to look the area over. The Vog’on was filled with hate, wanting to kill him, but the beast’s hand was stayed. The human watched with amusement as the Vog’on flexed it’s claw, obviously hating the restraint that was placed on it. Thehuman could never understand why these beasts allowed themselves to be held under such stupid rituals and omens, but it at least meant he could walk the surface of this planet and not be attacked.

Very well then. I will leave and report back to Bill Borg’gaes. Continue to keep us informed.

The Vog’on hummed some sort reply that he could not understand. No matter. Soon, their need for such beats would be over and he would take great delight in ridding the Galaxy of this vermin.

The Vog’on continued to hoot and chirp softly, putting a death mark on the human and claiming weak human’s life as his own to rip free when the time was right

--

The final cargo hatchway closed and the Jedi Master Turbogeek stepped back, sweat on his forehead from the frenetic activity he and the Garou had been doing in the ten days since they had caught the group of mercenaries that had been hired to find him, after somehow tracking him to this planet he and the Jedi Padawan Shay Kaylon had crashed landed on some weeks before. The mercenaries had been lead by a Sith that Turbogeek had battled, eventually luring the Sith into a trap that had seen the inexperienced Darksider go tumbling over a cliff. A party of Garou, send to confirm the Sith’s death had burned the body where it lay, some 500 meters below the edge. The mercenaries were now no better than slaves, well treated ones in the hands of the strange shape shifters Turbogeek had encountered, but slaves none the less. The two shuttle craft the Jedi and his allies had also captured proved to be spacious, well equipped and also with large enough cargo space to hold a reasonable sized spacecraft, with a few modifications. Not really willing to leave the spacecraft he had been flying behind, Turbogeek had, over a period of days, managed to get the wrecked craft inside the shuttle’s cargo bay. The wings and some other projections had to be removed and stowed, but it all fitted and now the Jedi was ready to leave.

He was going to miss this place, despite the rather sudden and unexpected stopover. The land was one of peace and it was easy to relax and forget the rest of the universe existed, with all it’s problems. In some ways, he had never felt better. The Garou had certainly been feeding both he and Shay well. Still, he had keep going on his mission, to answer the distress call of Gregori Paladin. All he could hope was that despite the delay, all would still be well with Paladin and the Jedi would not be too late. Dressed in a simple jumpsuit, the Jedi wiped his dirty hands on his legs, leaving greasy marks he would heave for the cleaning units to deal with.

He walked across to where the Garou were now gathered, ready to see him off. In another group, closely guarded the mercenaries also waited. In probably the only real disagreement with his hosts, the Jedi had insisted the mercs go free two hours after he had left and their lives spared. The Garou had wanted kill the lot or at the least hold them as prisioners for a while longer. Turbogeek was pretty sure the Garou were not going to let them go that soon, but he was certain whatever happened, the prisoners would be looked after while they remained on the planet.

“Is it you are concerned with reprisals?” he had asked at the time of the discussion

“No… we want the time to make sure they will not tell anything”

He was uncertain what that meant and he wondered if he really wanted to know. How did the saying go? Ask no questions, you get no lies? Seemed better to keep it that way for the moment. When present crisis were over, Turbogeek imagined he could come back here and make certain.

“No need Master Jedi” The young Garou Verse Dawnstrider, now coming with the Turbogeek to be trained in the ways of the Jedi came up to his shoulder and spke quietly.

“Ahhh, are my thoughts that obvious? I am concerned. I would not like to see anything happen to them, they were only here because they were paid”

“Master Turbogeek, they will be well looked after. Once the Garou make a promise, we do not back down. They will be well looked after, they may have to work a bit for their living, but no harm will come of them. In fact… I would not be surprised if they stay voluntarily”

“I’m not so sure of that”

“Master a question. How do you feel right now?”

“Well…… It is a nice place, I’ll grant you that and I woldn’t mind staying a while longer…”

The Garou grinned. “Even one like you is affected. This planet is strong in what we call Elemental Magic, what I now know is The Force. We wall want to stay. I can leave as I know I will return as you do. The others? They have no desire to leave and I think most of the mercenaries will find that soon they don’t want to go either. When that happens, the Garou will allow them to settle somewhere, teach them to farm and live off the land, may even show them some of our powers. I am certain of it”


The Jedi seemed to shrug. “As long as they come to no arm, I guess that is all I can ask for. Ready to go Verse?”

“Yes, my farewells have been said”

“On board then. Shay! We are going!”

The Jedi Padawan nodded and joined Verse on the ganplank, as Turbogeek quieky walked to the Garou leader, Moonwalker.

“Farewell friend and again, much gratitude I have for what you have done” He stretch a hand out and the Garou accepted the hand, shaking.

“I too thank you Turbogeek for offering to take Verse for Jedi training. It’s a great thing he seeks to become and I thank you for giving him the opportunity”

“Least I can do. Goodbye and fair weather for you”

“May the Force be with You, Jedi Master”

The Jedi bowed once and turned to board the shuttle. The second shuttle was shutdown, under guard nearby. The Jedi took a small glance at it, as he stopped at the foot of the gangway, savouring the sights and the smells of this wonderful planet. He knew he would be back on day.

He turned again, marching up the gangway to the top. Touching the close button as he passed, he made his way to the control room of the shuttle, where he found Shay and Verse taking seats.

“Ready to leave?”. They nodded in return. He sat at the command seat, strapped himself in and then glanced at the controls. Touching the power up sequence, he heard the repulorlifts kick in and begin to whine, lifting the ship vertically off the ground. Gaining height , he turned the ship slightly, then waggled the wings in a final salute to their hosts. The ship continued to gain height until about 300 meters and which point the forward thrusters were switched on, moving the ship forward. Wwaiting untl the shuttle had enough forward momentum, he switched off the repulsor lifts and blasted off into space.

Silence remained in the control room until they had cleared the atmosphere and beginning to drive for space, until Shay Kaylon spoke.

“Where are we going to Master Turbogeek? Are we still going after this Paladin or are we going to rejoin the Jedi?”

“Give me a few minutes Shay and I’ll explain what I have in mind”

Not long after, the ship’s Nav computer pinged and the Jedi wrapped his hands around the Hyperspace motor controls, drawing them gently backward to fire the shuttle into the spirals of hyperspace. Shay motioned to speak, but Turbogee waved her quiet again. 2 minutes into their flight, the Jedi closed his eyes, went into the Force and quite suddenly switched the hyperdrive off. The ship came back into realspace, into the blackness of interstellar space, now 1/1500th of a light year away from it’s starting point.

“What are you doing Master Jedi?” asked Verse, perplexed

“Not many people visualise how much space there is in the Galaxy. A short hop and any pursuit will never locate us, we are about as safe from interference as one can be” he replied. Verse and Shay exchanged puzzled glances befor ethe Jedi Master continued.

“What we are doing is taking a few minutes to find out what is going on out there. I have a few contacts that will get us up to date without giving us away - I’m fully intending to go get Gregori Paladin, but I want to find out anything else that should be concerning me”

“Why not ask the Jedi?” asked Shay

“Because I don’t want them to get involved with what I am doing. I deliberately caused a ruckus when we left the fleet to make sure everyone though I went mad. After all, who is going to try and follow a mad Jedi Master? Who is going to investigate what he is really up to?”

“Ummm…. Another mad Jedi?”

“Oh dear, I hope not. One insane person is enough for me. Well, lets call up my private message bank and see what I have - okay a bit of anti trace scrambling, ah, here we are”. The Jedi flicked a practiced eye over the message log, from his personal comms station back on Coruscant, sorting out the important messages from the dross. There was 5 messages the Jedi decided to read, one from Dark Knight, the Galatic President asking for an update, two from Reaperfett, one from Master Yoghurt and the one he was looking for, one from Captain Tohmahawk. The message was rather interesting.

Turbogeek, this is Tohmahawk. Freezing my ass off on Hoth, doubt you would care. With the army of General Scorpion, we believe we got Callista. Still trying to confirm. You really irritated a few people with your antics. I can be contacted on the private comm. code X45-ttt1-a12-*tttyl.

Callista dead? Somehow Turbogeek doubted that. Still, he made a note to call Tohmahawk in a moment.

He selected one of Reaperfett’s messages. It was an update of Hoth, listing all the events up to a fight Jedi Alpha had with a Vog’on. Turbogeek shook his head, knowing how lucky Alpha was to be still living The next message was more interesting. And a real eye opener, leading into Yoghurt’s message. 5 seconds after reading Yoghurt’s update of everything up to leaving Tatooine, Turbogeek was already scrabbling for the comms station, punching in Yoghurt’s private code. Verse and Shay looked at each other, surprised at the incredible intensity on the sense of the Jedi now.

“Master? What’s wrong?”

Turbogeek was waiting for the comm. channel to be opened. “The name Lady Mara Jade mean anything to you?”

Shay nodded.

“Well, Venom has turned up” She stared in incomprehension.

“But…”

The Jedi turned to face Shay. “I know. Suddenly, I need to know what in the Force is going on.” He turned back, tapping on the console as he continued to wait.

“Ummm Shay? What’s going on?” asked Verse

“Not sure. Quiet!” she hissed. The two youngsters continued to wait.

A reply came through the comms unit “I’m sorry, Master Yoghurt isn’t available right now, please leave..”

“Who are you? This is the Jedi Master Turbogeek and I want to speak to Master Yoghurt NOW”

Silence at the other end. A timid voice spoke up “I am Kat Katarea sir, Master Yogurt…”

“Now Katarena. I want to speak to Yoghurt now. No excuses”

The pause symbol came on as the person on the other end obeyed Turbogeek’s command. The Jedi Master looked at the two youngsters raised an eyebrow. “You would think people would be a bit more accommodating to a request”

“Maybe he’s asleep?”

“Yog? Asleep? Never seen it. Oh… Ahhh, Master Yoghurt! What in the Force is going on? Has everyone as well as myself taken leave of our senses?”

The small green Jedi appeared on the holoplate. “Why, Master Turbogeek. How goes it?”

“Not bad. Hope there wasn’t too much inconvenience or damage I left behind”

“Nothing a few hours in a bacta tank didn’t fix. You received message then?”

“Yes. Have you all gone nuts?”

"No. Can you come?"

“I can’t. I have other things that need doing Yog. And besides, I doubt I would be welcome, especially with the Sith. Lady Mara must be waiting to wring my neck”

Yoghurt paused and even with the blur of the hologram, Turbogeek could clearly see Yoghurt’s expression change. The other Jedi paused

“Yoghurt?”

“Master Turbogeek, I request you come here and at the least pick up your Padawan learner”

“Yog, my Padawans are quite capable of taking care of themselves. Garik and Loungie…”

“Garik is Jedi Knight now and Lounge Lizard came onboard, declared himself Sith, stole a shuttle and left. I speak of the Padawan you have been assigned.”

Turbogeek leaned back. “Lounge Lizard’s turning is not unexpected and it gladdens me you promoted Garik. But who is this you assigned to be my learner? You know quite well I do not accept Padawans except for special reasons”

“Oh it’s special Turbogeek. Please, come here before you continue on. It is important.”

“Something in the force told Turbogeek what he had to do. “Alright Yog, I’ll come. Send the fleet’s co-ordinates and wait for me. I’ll have shay and also a new seeker of knowledge with me”

“Oh? Who would that be?”

“A Garou, by the name of Verse Dawnstrider. Long story how we met. Anything else”

“No get here as soon as possible. I’ll send the co-ordinates. Yoghurt out”

The image dissolved, to leave a bewildered Turbogeek and an equally puzzled set of youngsters.

“Well….. seems like the situation has changed, wouldn’t you say?” said Turbogeek to shay.

“It has Master. What are we going to do? How can we go to the fleet and save Paladin at the same time?”

“A good question. First things first I’ll have to see whether Paladin still need saving I guess. The distress beacon he used has a transmitter hidden in it I could try… now, what was the code?” He thought for a while, then tapped out a code. A few minutes later….

--

The beep of the distress beacon woke Paladin up abruptly. A winking light lit up the room Paladin was in, flashing softly. Paladin’s hopes soared… was this the signal of his rescue, that he had held out for? Not finding a reply button he just spoke. “Hello? Who is this? Are you coming to help?”

--

Nupraptor
Oct 21st, 2000, 09:54:14 AM
Sometimes, I wonder DT.... I wonder "How do you keep doing this?!?"

GuardPiett
Oct 21st, 2000, 10:59:31 AM
Another job well done, DT.

Dara Shadowtide
Oct 21st, 2000, 09:33:46 PM
OOC:
Amazing stuff DT. I can't wait to read the rest of it. :)