Anakin and Shura 1

How Anakin met Shura and Lucas

Anakin heaved a sigh as he heaved the heavy crate on to the top shelf in the cargo hold. He’d never get out of this vicious cycle of unpleasant, low-paying jobs. How could he? Not only did he have a criminal record, which was enough to dissuade most sensible people from hiring him, he did not have any proof for half of the piloting jobs he had had over the last couple of years. His old dream of joining Starfleet was surely as dead as a doornail.
Staring at the crate-filled shelves, a wave of despair washed over him. He wanted to drop to the floor and howl at the universe like a lone bashai on a bare ice floe.
Stop that! A tiny voice in his head started up. Stop feeling sorry for yourself! Do something! If you give up, you really will be stuck in these stupid jobs forever!
Sighing again, Anakin ambled over to the last crate that needed to be put in storage. Easier said than done, he told the tiny voice. Don’t you think I haven’t tried? How can I convince somebody I am worth their bother when I cannot convince myself that I am?
He heaved the crate up and searched for a free spot on the shelves. At least this time he was certain that the cargo they were transporting was not illegal. Almost certain.
Fake it until you make it, the tiny voice admonished. To his own surprise Anakin grinned at that silly advice. Had he accidentally downloaded a self-help book into his brain?
He had just spotted a space large enough for the crate under the lowest shelf when a red light started flashing on the ceiling accompanied by a shrill siren. Anakin stopped in his tracks and focused on the ship.
The siren cut off abruptly after a few seconds. The light on the ceiling however, continued to flash.
Anakin looked at it, but there was no untoward sound, no creaking or cracking audible that would indicate a malfunction. The air was still, and the ship flew on as smoothly as before. If there was an emergency, it was not on their ship. If it had been a distress call from another ship it was over, one way or another, as it was impossible to turn these calls off.
But what about the flashing lights?
Anakin shoved the crate into the empty space, activated the clamps on the shelves and ran to the cockpit. As he had done countless times, he banged his head on the low door to the cargo hold.
When he entered the cockpit, his eyes immediately fell on the incoming signals panel. He came to an abrupt stop, for a moment unable to tear away his eyes from the panel: a distress call was flashing up, but somehow Captain Mussinaro had turned the sound off, never mind that this was supposed to be technically impossible.
Mussinaro sat, as usual, at the helm of his ship, and, also as usual, playing a game on a pad of paper, while the autopilot was doing its job of flying the ship.
Anakin stepped closer to the controls. He noticed that whoever send out the distress call was close enough to allow a video feed. It seemed that whatever illegal means Mussinaro had had installed that allowed him to mute distress calls did not cut off the video feed. Or Mussinaro had only been too stingy to pay for whoever installed the device to do that as well.
The screen showed the cockpit of a small vessel, a young man sitting at the controls. Blood was running down the side of his face and his clothes were torn in several places. He spoke rapidly at the camera. Suddenly he turned away, and a moment later a young woman in a military uniform stumbled into the cockpit. If the young man - her partner? Anakin found himself wondering - looked dishevelled, the young, attractive woman looked as if she’d been in an earthquake. Her face was scratched and what looked like a formidable shiner was starting to bloom around her left eye. Her uniform was not only torn, it was stained as if she had rolled in dirt. She held on to the doorframe, as if she needed the support and spoke rapidly at the young man, waving a laser torch around to emphasise the point she was making. Judging from the look on her face, the news was not good.
When the young man turned back to the camera, he looked devastated. As the young woman stumbled out of the door, the young man started shouting. Anakin was not good at lip reading but even he had no problem understanding ‘help!! Help!! Somebody help us!’
Anakin slipped on the co-pilot’s chair and pulled up the location of their ship and that of the ship sending out the distress call. Fortunately, Mussinaro had not had it deactivated. They were almost on top of that little ship, in fact, they were shooting past it, as Anakin examined their relative locations.
He took hold of the controls and overriding the autopilot pulled them out of hyperspace. The ship protested against this rude manoeuvre with a loud shriek of its engines. The entire structure shuddered as their speed dropped a lot faster than safety regulations allowed. Keeping his eyes on the navigation screen, Anakin used the momentum the ship still had to make as tight a turn as it was capable of doing. Which was not very tight at all, but after what seemed an inordinately long time, they were finally heading towards the ship in distress.
“What are you doing?” Captain Mussinaro’s scream, startled Anakin.
After briefly glancing at the Captain who was now standing right next to him, Anakin returned his attention to the console to steer the ship in the right direction. “I am doing what every decent person would do,” he replied, “and moreover what the law requires, helping these people in distress.”
Something hit their ship, tossing it slightly off course. When he turned to the view screen, Anakin saw they were heading right into a meteorite cloud. Though meteorites was an exaggeration. The rocks that swirled around their ship were more small boulders than meteorites. Moreover, they were evenly spaced out and all moved in the same direction.
Another jolt went through the ship.
“Stop!” Mussinaro yelled at him.
Anakin had to laugh. Stopping would be the stupidest thing to do. He corrected the heading of the ship, so it almost flew with the same speed and in the same direction as the miniature meteorites, but ever so slightly across the flow to keep heading in the direction of the ship in distress.
“Have you lost your mind?” Mussinaro pulled at Anakin’s arm.
Tearing his arm out of the Captain’s grip, Anakin pushed Mussinaro aside with his other hand.
“Possible,” he replied as he swerved slightly to avoid one of the meteorites. Diving up and down and left and right he steered the ship slowly across the stream of meteorites, almost evading all of them. Every now and then a shudder went through the ship as one of the rocks hit the hull of the ship.
Only when they finally reached clear space again, he spared a glance at the Captain whose silence had started to be disturbing. Mussinaro lay motionless on the deck. Anakin realised he must have pushed him harder than he had intended. Now he really was in a conundrum, should he look after the Captain or the people in distress?
To his relief he could see that Mussinaro’s chest rose and fell regularly. Whatever was wrong it could wait until after they had helped the other ship.
He turned back to the controls. By now he could see the ship in the distance. A cloud of what looked like steam clung to its stern. They were leaking atmosphere. That was bad.
Anakin accelerated the ship, pushing it as fast as it would go. Which still might not be fast enough.
For the first time since he took control of the ship, he looked at the message screen. The precarious situation on the stricken ship had obviously deteriorated significantly. The young man, now sporting a breathing mask sat slumped back in his chair, moving his hands feebly up and down. On the copilot’s chair, the young woman, also wearing a breathing mask, seemed to write on a note pad.
When Ankin looked back up at the view screen, the small ship, a private little planet hopper not a military vessel as he had expected, came satisfyingly rapidly closer.
He tapped the communicator on. “Unknown vessel, I am about to reach your ship. Is your escape hatch on top of your ship?”
Contacting the distressed ship must have turned off the device that silenced the distress call. At first only was static audible but then Anakin could hear a faint “yes” through the crackling.
He waited until the last moment to reduce speed, when the ships were close enough that he could make out the silhouettes of the two people through the view screen.
He brought the ship to a hard stop on top of the other vessel, flipping it over so their own escape hatch, that was also situated on top of their vessel, and that of the ship in distress aligned as well as he could judge from his position.
Anakin got up and stumbled over Mussinaro, who moaned loudly as Anakin’s foot hit his side. Mussinaro’s eyes were open, and he was staring at Anakin as if he had never seen him before, fear etched in every line of his face.
“Don’t kill me,” he pleaded.
The question startled Anakin. Where did that come from?
“Why would I do that?” he asked and bend over the prostrate Captain. “I need you to help,” he told Mussinaro, “to manoeuvre the ship so I can lock our escape hatches together. Can you do that?”
For a long moment, Mussinaro just stared at Anakin.
“Yes or no?” Anakin asked. “The people over there are dying!”
Mussinaro nodded and closed his eyes.
Anakin looked down at the Captain and a wave of contempt washed over him. Did that bastard really believe that he could just lie there while people were dying only a few yards away? Did he believe that Anakin was so stupid to trust him even now?
“Let me help you up,” he said and taking Mussinaro’s hand pulled him to a sitting position.
At first, Mussinaro went stiff then he sat up and before Anakin could help him further, Mussinaro got to his feet and re-took his seat on the pilot’s chair with an alacrity that belied the impression of a seriously injured man he had given so far.
What is he up to now, Anakin wondered.
Mussinaro turned and returned Anakin’s stare. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”
Anakin nodded and turned the intercom on at full volume. He ran out of the cockpit and headed for the escape hatch. There really was no time to lose. When he reached the escape hatch, he pulled the space suit out of its cupboard and donned it as quickly as possible. He begrudged the few minutes it took, but if the distressed ship’s atmosphere was almost gone, and he fainted once he got in, he’d be no help to the young man and woman.
“What’s taking you so long?” Mussinaro shouted over the intercom.
“Getting into the space suite,” Anakin replied. “They are losing atmosphere.”- Something that Mussinaro should have seen if he used his eyes.
He pulled the helmet on and closed the seal. Theoretically he should now run a check on the functionality of the suit. A good idea, considering how stingy Mussinaro was when it came to the upkeep of his ship and its equipment. But there simply was no time.
He stepped into the airlock, closed the door, and activated the decompression cycle. Another dangerous wait that seemed far longer than the minute it actually took to suck the atmosphere out of the lock. When the red light finally stopped blinking, Anakin climbed the ladder to the escape hatch. He opened it and peered out.
The other ship’s escape hatch was almost within reach. Through sheer luck, he had steered the ship into a near perfect position.
“Captain,…” Anakin stopped himself. He had experienced Mussinaro’s skills as a pilot or rather his lack of them. It was pointless to instruct him to manoeuvre the ship half a yard to the left.
He climbed the ladder up further staring at the other ship. Perhaps he could reach it, if he climbed outside. Anakin hooked the tethering line to the belt of his space suit and stepped outside the hatch. Too bad the suit did not have magnetic boots, but of course Mussinaro was too stingy for that.
As soon as Anakin started to move, he lost contact to his ship. That was no good, he grabbed the tether and pulled himself back to the ship. He stared at the escape hatch of the stricken ship, still maddingly out of reach. But there was no time to lose. He just had to try.
He bent his knees while pulling the tether to keep it tight, then jumped towards the other ship’s escape hatch. He grabbed the handhold of the hatch’s rim and pulled himself towards it. Looping the tether around a hook, he turned and stared to pull himself, and the stricken ship closer to the escape hatch of his ship. Thank goodness for the lack of air resistance in space.
The gap between the two ships diminished agonisingly slowly. All of a sudden, Anakin felt dreadfully exposed alone in space between the two vessels.
“Don’t even think about it,” he heard himself say, only then realising that what he really worried about was that Mussinaro would try to flee, leaving him, the stricken ship, and all his problems behind.
“How did you… ?” Mussinaro asked, quickly correcting himself, “what are you talking about?”
“The escape hatch is open,” Anakin told Mussinaro, “if you go into hyperspace, it will tear your ship to shreds.”
“I didn’t… ,” Mussinaro started but his voice trailed off into nothingness.
Anakin wondered why he was utterly convinced that was exactly what Mussinaro had meant to do. Had he accused his employer unjustly of attempting to kill him? Was it just paranoia speaking?
No. Anakin was certain he had been right. He must have subconsciously noticed something out of place in the appearance of the ship. Escaping was also exactly the kind of ruthless solution he had learned to expect from Mussinaro. Leaving Anakin and the two people in the stricken ship behind would leave them to certain death and nobody would ever know that he had ignored a distress call and his highly illegal modification of the ship’s com.
At long last, Mussinaro’s ship was almost within reach.
All of a sudden, Anakin saw himself entering the ship headfirst and tumbling in a heap on the floor as soon as the artificial gravity of the ship grabbed hold of him. He pushed himself off the stricken ship and twisted his body around, legs pulled up to his chest. The gap between the ships continued to close. The disadvantage of the absence of air resistance in space: once something moved it continued to move until it hit an obstacle.
He almost managed to hit the open escape hatch of Mussinaro’s ship. One of his legs went right through, but the other hit the rim of the hatch painfully, even though the spacesuit cushioned much of the impact. Frantically he pulled the leg into the gaping hole of the hatch and let gravity do the rest. His feet hit the floor hard, and he almost ended in a heap on the floor, only the fact that he held on to the tether saved him from that fate.
Moments later, the rim of the stricken ship hit Mussinaro’s.
Ignoring the various bits of his body that complained about the treatment he’s given them, Anakin climbed the ladder to the escape hatch again. The two hatches were almost perfectly aligned. Blind luck.
But how to seal the two ships together? He could see no mechanism that would provide an airtight connection between the ships.
“Captain?” he asked, wondering what Mussinaro had been doing all the time he had worked out in space.
“How do I…,” Anakin started to ask when suddenly the escape hatch of the stricken ship opened.
A head appeared in the opening. Anakin quickly retreated down the ladder. It was the young woman he had seen earlier on the viewscreen. She stared at him over her breathing mask which was still her only protection against the dangers of the vacuum of space.
Anakin froze where he was. If he did not get her inside the ship within minutes, she would be dead. Surprisingly, her face was calm and unworried. In fact, her one good eye, the left had swollen shut, was surrounded by small wrinkles, as if she was smiling behind her breathing mask.
Anakin hopped off the ladder and pressed himself against the wall of the airlock to give her space. Or should he try to catch her, before she tumbled on her head when the gravity of the ship seized her? In the small airlock, she would drop on him anyway.
The woman climbed further up - or down, depending on your point of view. As soon as she pulled herself into Mussinaro’s ship she flipped around like an acrobat to land easily on her feet.
Behind her, the young man was also making his way into the ship. - This was going to get cosy, Anakin though, with all three of them in the small airlock.
Unlike the young woman, the young man looked harried, and his movements were slow and shaky. As soon as his upper torso was inside Mussinaro’s ship, the young woman, who had climbed halfway up the ladder, grabbed his sides and pulled him inside by jumping off the ladder. Even though she was holding the body off the young man up, she landed as easily as before. Anakin was impressed.
Both, he noted, were wearing tight bodysuits, pilots’ bodysuits. They were no replacement for a spacesuit but gave some protection against the partial vacuum. The stricken ship must have still a bit of air left. But without the bodysuits they both would be dead by now.
The young woman turned to him, the air tank on her back bumping against his spacesuit. Carefully she put the young man down on his feet and pointed imperiously at the open escape hatch. When Ankin waved at the ceiling, trying to convey that their ship would be cast adrift, if he shut the hatch, she made a swift cutting gesture. The ‘Forget it’ was as clearly understandable as if she had said it out loud.
Of course, if you are staring into the face of your immediate death by vacuum, the loss of a ship becomes irrelevant.
Squeezing past the two, Anakin climbed the ladder, he released the tether and slammed the escape hatch shut. He quickly checked that the seal was tight then he jumped off the ladder, stepped over to the controls and activated the recompression cycle.
When he turned around, he saw that the young man had collapsed against the woman, who was holding him up. What Anakin could see of her face was deeply worried. She stroked the young man’s back. Her lover, that much was obvious.
“Captain,” Anakin called out. “I have two people from the ship here and they need medical attention. Now! Come here with the medical kit.”
He received no reply. Where the hell was Mussinaro?
The green light above the door turned on, and the young woman pulled the breathing mask off her face and eagerly gulped down air. She stared open-mouthed at Anakin, the strain she had been under now obvious.
Anakin removed the helmet of his spacesuit and slammed his hand on the button to open the door to the airlock. It swished open but only revealed an empty corridor.
“Mussinaro!” Anakin yelled. “Where are you? - We need the medical kit now!”
The young woman was still staring at him with her one good eye, still holding up the body of her lover, who was still wearing his breathing mask.
Anakin placed the helmet on its shelf, stepped over to them and took off the young man’s mask. Standing this close to the two of them, Anakin noticed that the young woman was shaking. She was also, he noted with surprise, almost as tall as he was. Her lover on the other hand, was much shorter. His feet dangled above the floor. No wonder she was shaking, holding him up like that.
“Should I relieve you of your lover?” he asked her and took hold of the young man.
“Are you insane!” the young woman shouted furiously. “He is my brother!”
“Oh,” Anakin made. “Sorry, I just assumed…”
What was he doing? The young man, her brother, needed medical attention right now. He lifted the unconscious young man out of her hands.
“If the idiot Mussinaro does not bring the medical kit here, we have to get your brother to it,” he said and walked out of the door.
Right outside stood the idiot in question, holding the medical kit. The way he glowered at Anakin was proof that he had heard what Anakin had said.
Mussinaro shoved the medical kit at Anakin, even though it was obvious that he had his hands full.
“Who are these people?” he asked in a growl.
The young woman grabbed the medical kit out of Mussinaro’s hand. She was almost a head taller than he was. Not something Mussinaro was finding comfortable. He stepped back quickly.
“Lieutenant Shura Talassa,” the young woman replied in a surprisingly even tone. “And this is my brother Lucas Talassa, diplomatic aide to ambassador Niharika.”
“Captain Artano Mussinaro,” Mussinaro held out his hand, “and my useless mate Anakin Skywalker.”
“Thanks,” Anakin said and walked past the Captain. The young woman, Shura something, ignored Mussinaro’s outstretched hand and followed him.
A multitude of questions swirled around Anakin’s head. What happened? Had their ship malfunctioned? Had there been an attack and if so, where the attackers still around? Ambassador who? How was she feeling? Where did they come from? All that could wait.
“What’s wrong with him?” Anakin asked as he placed the unconscious young man on the couch in the small space that was his living quarters, the ship’s lounge, the kitchen, the Captain’s favourite hang-out in port combined.
At least, the young man was breathing evenly.
“I don’t know,” Shura said as she rummaged through the medical kit. “Maybe because he’s smaller?”
Anakin looked at the young man more closely. “Or maybe because the suit is too large for him.” He could put his finger between the neck of the suit and the young man’s chest.
The young woman glared at him. “That’s what I just said,” she growled.
The young man - Anakin could not remember his name - groaned. That was a good sign, no?
Shura had pulled a syringe out of the medical kit and read its instructions. For a moment she looked around as if looking for something, then at Anakin and said, “It has to be given intravenously. Give me a hand.”
“Tell me what to do,” Anakin asked as he had no idea.
“I have to get at his veins, of course,” Shura replied, sounding angry, and started trying to rip the bodysuit’s sleeve apart.
Anakin had to suppress a derisive snort. These suits were made to not rip under any circumstances. Of course, she knew that, when she was not frantic about her brother.
Good thing this place was also the kitchen, so Anakin just had to turn around to reach the drawer that held the cutlery. He pulled out the sharpest knife he could find and started cutting through the suit. It was tough work, but it did the job.
Shura pulled the sleeve up as soon as that was possible. The narrower lower sleeve seemed to work reasonably well as a torniquet as Anakin could see the vein in the young man’s elbow becoming more pronounced.
“Hold here,” Shura said, and pointed at her brother’s wrist.
Anakin did as he was told and watched in amazement as Shura gave her brother the injection. His medical knowledge was pretty inexistant, but he knew that to give an intravenous injection was not something anyone without training should attempt.
Shura dropped the empty syringe on the floor and pulled the medical scanner out of the kit. She swept it over her brother’s body. The look on her face was enough to tell Anakin that the readings were not good.
Anakin closed his eyes and envisioned where they were. Yes, Noosauko was best. He turned around and ran to the cockpit.
“Captain!” he shouted, “Set a course for Noosauko, there’s the nearest hospital.”
“How dare you give me orders!” Mussinaro yelled as Anakin arrived, jumping up from the controls. “We have already wasted too much time with this nonsense! I have a schedule to keep and very impatient customers! I won’t allow any more of your pointless detours.”
“Pointless,” Shura’s sarcastic comment startled both Mussinaro and Anakin.
She was standing just behind Anakin with her arms crossed across her chest and glared at Mussinaro.
Mussinaro stared open-mouthed at the young woman in her lieutenant’s uniform. “I didn’t…,” he started but seemed to run out of words.
Anakin slid past him and sat down on the co-pilot’s chair. Hastily he called up the coordinates of the Oonauli sector and set the course.
“I didn’t mean…,” Mussinaro said but his words trailed off again.
Anakin hoped he was squirming under Shura’s gaze. He turned all his attention to steering the ship far enough away from her stricken vessel to make the jump into hyperspace.
“I think I said enough,” he heard Mussinaro say and the sound of his retreating footsteps.
Anakin engaged the hyperdrive and the stars turned into long streaks of light.
“How long until we get to wherever we are going?” Shura asked.
Anakin turned around to look at her. “About 30 minutes in hyperspace and then perhaps another 30 until we land at Noosauko Main Spaceport,” he told her. “I’ll call ahead as soon as we are within range. They should send an ambulance to the port.”
She nodded. “I better check on my brother.” She turned and left the cockpit.
Anakin returned his attention to the control panel. Everything was alright. For the next half hour there was nothing for him to do but keep an eye on the readouts. Time for his mind to wander. Like wondering what Mussinaro had been doing all the time he had spent in the airlock with the two siblings. And what he was doing now. He had a bad feeling about that.
As if answering the question, he heard an unknown voice cry out, “He has a blaster, Shura!”
The brother must have regained consciousness.
Damn! Anakin jumped out of his seat and ran to their impromptu sickbay. What did Mussinaro think he was doing?
Hearing his approach, Mussinaro turned and pointed the blaster at Anakin. “Stop right there.”
Anakin skidded to a stop just as something flew out of the room, Mussinaro was standing in front of. It hit him squarely in the head, throwing him off balance and startled by this missile, he pulled the trigger. The bolt went wide and hit the food locker.
In his mind Anakin saw the blaster bolt go straight through the locker, the thin ceiling and through the ship’s hull, creating a hole big enough to threaten the integrity of the ship. - But that was nonsense. The hull of any ship was tough enough to absorb much larger bolts than that of a handheld blaster, otherwise it would not withstand the pressures of hyperspace. Mussinaro and his blaster were the threat that he needed to tackle.
Just as he came to this conclusion, somebody else tackled Mussinaro. Shura had appeared from nowhere - or more likely the loo and thrown herself against Mussinaro, holding his arms to his torso. Mussinaro fell face first on the floor. “Get off me!” he shouted.
“Get back to bed,” Shura yelled in reply. Not addressing Mussinaro of course but her brother. A thump told Anakin that the brother had done what she told him to do.
Anakin crossed the short distance to where Shura was now kneeling on Mussinaro, pressing his arms to the floor with her knees.
“Let me relieve him of that blaster,” Anakin told her.
Shura nodded. “Is there a place where we can lock that madman up?” she asked.
It was Anakin’s turn to nod. He prised the blaster out of Mussinaro’s hand, not even trying to go gentle.
“Give me a moment,” he told Shura. “I have to check on our progress. Then I get some rope to tie the man up.” As he stood up and turned to go back to the cockpit, he could see that Shura’s brother had not so much lain down again as collapsed on his bed. “I’ll hurry,” he promised.
As he hastened to the cockpit, seemingly out of nowhere a clear picture of Jasper lying half in and half out of his bed back on Tatooine popped up in Anakin’s mind. With the picture came the desperate feeling that went with seeing his brother so sick and knowing he could not help. He knew exactly what Shura must feel at the moment.
He did not even sit down on the co-pilot’s chair, just checked the various readouts and screens. The navigation screen said there was still plenty of time before they dropped out of hyperspace. Anakin stashed the blaster in the drawer where the flight regulations were kept. Even if Mussinaro somehow managed to escape them, that would be the last place he would look.
After another glance at the readouts, Anakin hastened back to where Shura was still kneeling on the prostrate Mussinaro. She had her hands full, as he tried to buck her off his back.
“I get a rope,” Anakin told her as he squeezed past.
“Let me go!” Mussinaro yelled. “I am the captain here!”
Neither Anakin nor Shura deigned to answer. Once again Anakin banged his head against the lintel of the cargo hold’s door. I’ll never learn, he moaned inwardly, rubbing his head. But why should I? I won’t be on this blasted ship for much longer. - Thank the gods.
There! He grabbed one of the ropes hanging from the hooks next to the door. For once without hitting his head on the lintel again, he returned to the struggling pair and helped Shura tie Mussinaro up. Together they manoeuvred the complaining Captain into the cargo hold, deposited him in one corner and tied his feet to one of the bolts on the deck.
“Don’t worry,” Anakin told him. “We let you loose when we get to Noosauko which should be in just over half an hour.”
“No, we won’t!” Shura exclaimed, glaring angrily first at Mussinaro then at Anakin.
Anakin pulled her out of the cargo hold and pressed the button to close the door. “I have to go back to take over steering when we leave hyperspace and I guess you better go and keep an eye on your brother.”
Grim-faced Shura nodded. “Ok,” she said. “But we will have a talk about what happened before we get to port.”
Anakin nodded and headed for the cockpit. He had no idea what the use of talking about what happened was. Shura and her brother would probably believe his version of the events but who else would? Mussinaro would spin a tale of how he had come to their rescue and Anakin had interfered and hindered him. And who would not rather believe a Captain than a man with a criminal record and huge gaps in his employment record that any decent law enforcement could easily fill with all the illegal jobs he had done.
Better pay attention to the here and now, he told himself sternly. Not long now and they would drop out of hyperspace.
He called up a more detailed chart of the Oonauli sector and chartered a course from the point of exit from hyperspace to Noosauko spaceport and programming the autopilot with it. He did not like flying by autopilot, but he should check on Shura and her brother, ensure that they were as comfortable as they could be on a ship like this. Show Shura where she could find food and drink. He should also make sure Shura had not collapsed as well, after the strain of their shipwreck and all the excitement since. He also wanted to ask the question he had had no time to ask yet.
When the ship popped out of hyperspace, Anakin engaged the autopilot, watched the ship’s progress a few minutes but the course looked perfectly satisfactory. Reluctantly, he tore himself away and returned to the sickbay.
Shura was sitting on the floor next to his bed, holding her brother’s hand in both of hers. She had put him properly into the bed and covered him with the thin duvet.
“How is he doing?” Anakin asked when he entered.
Shura looked up. “Sleeping,” she replied. “He’s not better than before, but not worse either. That is good.”
Ankin crossed to the little fridge under the sink. “That’s a relief,” he said. He opened the fridge and peered inside. “Do you want something to drink? There’s not much I can offer you, water, some cheap beer, and Maramamra juice. But I have to warn you, I think it tastes like rancid rassiberries.”
“Cheap beer would be nice,” she sighed. “I think I deserve it. Not that it’s cheap mind, but after… “
“What did happen?” Anakin interrupted. He took two of the beers, opened them, handing one to Shura and sat down on the couch with the other.
Shura sighed again and took a drink, wincing a little bit at the taste. “Well, that is not only cheap beer, it tastes cheap. - But back to your question, as is so often the case it was an unfortunate combination of several stupid things. You could say the first stupid thing was that Lucas and I decided to visit the Hopping Moon Holiday Resort.” Anakin must have looked confused as she explained, “It’s a holiday resort on a small moon with low gravity, so you can go hopping about. In a lightweight, simplified spacesuit. Much fun for the kids. One of my cousins took her kids there recently and they had so much fun, we decided that we’re still kids enough to try it ourselves. When I had some shore leave, Lucas took some time off, and off we went. It’s a bit tricky to get there from Tressilia so we decided to get there in two hops. And would you believe it? Just as we left hyperspace we were hit by a little meteorite. I think you encountered them yourself. By the way, Lucas told me that you did some extremely skilful flying when you found yourself in that meteor shower.”
“I did?” Anakin was surprised Lucas had even noticed. Their ship had been pretty far away yet.
“Yes,” Shura said, having first gulped down more beer. “It sure as hell was not that idiot of a Captain. Pointless detour!” She shook her head, looking furious. “Well, the small meteorite just banged our ship, no big problem. But the lurch was strong enough that I fell against the controls, hitting the speed control. And Lucas dropped a pen he was holding into the tiny slit between the steering and the instrument board. One of those things that you could not manage time if you tried. The pen hit exactly the wrong spot and almost disappeared into the slot. So, the ship was zooming away, and I had no control over it. It felt as if we hit every single meteorite. The accumulated hits were enough to disable the rudder and break through the hull.” She sighed deeply. “Stupid. I fumbled around to get the pen out, hitting my face on the controls repeatedly. By the time I managed it was too late. I was just looking for where we could go to get help when the engine whimpered and died.”
“Oh!” Anakin made and jumped up. He had quite forgotten her injuries. He did not know how he had managed, as the black eye could not be overlooked nor the multiple scratches in her face. “Let me take care of your injuries.”
Shura put a hand on her face as if she too had forgotten about it. She looked down on her torn and dishevelled uniform and shook her head.
Placing his beer on the small table next to the couch, Anakin stepped over to her and started rummaging in the medical kit until he found the cleaning pads disinfectant and wound spray.
“I can do it myself,” Shura said.
“It’s easier for me,” Anakin told her. “Unless…”
She shook her head. “Just don’t want to bother you.”
“No bother at all,” Anakin returned and started to clean her wounds. This gave him plenty of opportunity to study her face. It was stunning. Strong features and amazing dark-brown eyes. Sitting this close to her, gave him a strange warm feeling inside.
When he sat back after having sprayed the last scratch with the wound spray, she looked at him with a smile. “Thank you,” she said. She paused briefly and added with fervour “Speaking of which, thank you for saving our lives! I can’t believe I have not thanked you yet. Without your interference, we’d both be dead by now. We really had no time left. And that stunt you pulled pulling the two ships together! I have never heard of anything like that!” She leaned forward and hugged him tightly.
When she pulled back, Anakin realised that he must be grinning inanely. “Thanks,” he said.
Shura continued to smile, leaned back and took the hand of her brother again.
“It was you who came to your help, over the objection of your Captain,” she stated.
Anakin nodded, thought for a moment and decided, he might as well, tell her the whole story. “He had somehow disabled the audio output of the distress call receiver, or rather paid somebody to do so, but not the video feed. I could see what was going on.”
“Fantastic,” Shura said. “It means something solid we can show the guys on - Noosauko. Illegal devices to silence distress calls are enough to put you in jail.”
Noosauko! Anakin jumped to his feet and headed out of the door. “Better check our progress,” he called back.
A quick glance on the displays showed him that the ship was progressing nicely. No problems there. He quickly sent a message to the space port authorities, informing them that he came and brought two people he had picked up from a wrecked ship who had been temporarily exposed to partial vacuum, and one was in a bad state and could they please send a medical team to pick them up at the port. - He received an affirmative reply shortly afterwards.
He then sat back and watched the ship fly past the outer planets of the Oonauli system. A strange feeling of unreality overcame him. Was this really happening? Had he just saved two peoples’ lives against the wishes of Captain Mussinaro and gotten away with it so far? Probably would continue do so, because, as Shura had said, the illegal jamming device was solid proof of Mussinaro’s illegal activities. It would not be his word against Mussinaro’s. And there was Shura. She did not strike him as somebody who would back down because of some of Mussinaro’s machination. The uniform also gave her some public standing. As did her brother’s job. Diplomatic aid to somebody. Surely that gave him some clout. With somebody.
Time to take over the ship’s controls. Noosauko was quickly filled the viewing screen. Anakin let the autopilot guide the ship until it was about to enter the atmosphere before he took the controls. He had seen Mussinaro let the autopilot land the ship, but he was not Mussinaro, and he preferred to land the ship himself.
Airport control had assigned them a flight corridor that took them first over a seemingly endless sea to approach the main port over a multitude of small and big islands. The city around the port was not large but tall, full of high-rise buildings of all sorts of shapes and sizes. A pretty city.
As the ship approached the spaceport, Anakin thought that the area of the port must be larger than the entire city. It was also a surprisingly busy port. To his relief he spotted an ambulance standing next to what looked like the main terminal building.
He steered the ship to its assigned landing place next to which several uniformed people were waiting. Interesting, Anakin thought and lowered the ramp of the ship.
He stood up, not even surprised when he heard several people immediately tramping up the ramp. They were no doubt here to arrest him. Mussinaro must have sent some message ahead warning them of … No, you’re getting paranoid, Anakin told himself. Before they tied him up, Mussinaro had been sure he would stop them from getting here.
What surprised him was that there was no sign of Shura. “We have landed,” he declared loudly, just as the first uniformed man appeared in the door. He had light blue skin and was rather short. He also held an impressive blaster rifle that he pointed at Anakin. “You are under arrest.”
Anakin raised his hands. “What for?” he asked.
“Don’t play stupid with me,” the man said.
“I am not playing stupid,” Anakin returned. “I am stupid.”
“Stop it! Both of you!” Shura shouted from behind the uniformed man, some sort of security, who turned around and for a second pointed his blaster and Shura but then lowered it, probably on seeing her uniform, tattered as it was.
“The registration number of the ship is falsified,” the uniformed man informed her.
Anakin almost said, ‘Why am I not surprised?’ but thought the better of it.
“Then better arrest the Captain of the ship,” Shura told him. “He’s locked up in the cargo hold.”
“The Captain is locked up in the cargo hold?” a new voice echoed. Two more uniforms came into the corridor. The two women had the same complexion and were of similar size than the first person who entered.
“He is,” Shura confirmed. “But that’s a long story. I would prefer if my brother first received the medical attention he desperately needs. Right now!”
“She should be checked out too,” Anakin chimed in.
“That can wait!” Shura sounded exasperated.
“No, it cannot!” A small man squeezed past the two uniforms and hasted to Shura. “If you are one of the ship-wrecked, you need medical attention as well!” He peered into the sickbay and said something into his wrist com, then turned to the security. “Step aside!”
As they flattened themselves against the bulkheads two men carrying a stretcher barrelled past them. Close on their heels came another man carrying a bulky case. They hurried to their patient. After what seemed to Anakin only a few moments Lucas was carried out on the stretcher, his face covered with a breathing mask, and numerous infusions stuck in his arms. The third medic walked behind them, pushing the infusion stand and carrying the bulky case back out. The medic who had first arrived on board, led Shura out of the ship.
“See you later,” Shura said as she walked by Anakin and was gone before he had time to reply.
They had hardly left the ship, when the security man who had threatened Anakin with a blaster, turned back to him and said, “This ship is impounded. - And now, what is this about your Captain being locked up in the cargo hold?”
“If you follow me,” Anakin told him. “It was in the cargo hold that it all started. A distress call came in, and I discovered that Captain Mussinaro had had a device installed that muted distress calls…”
“Muted the distress call?” The man grabbed Anakin’s arm, as he wanted to go past him to the cargo hold. The security man looked utterly shocked.
“I was as surprised as you are, as I thought that was impossible,” Anakin told him.
“Show me,” the security man said.
“How could I?” Anakin replied. “I have not the faintest where it is or how it works.”
The security man looked unconvinced. “How did you know then that there a distress call had come in?”
“The alarm lights were flashing,” Anakin told him. The man’s sceptical expression made him continue, “when I reached the cockpit, the signals panel showed the distress call, but without sound. Captain Mussinaro ignored it. - He’ll deny this of course.”
“Artano Mussinaro?” the security man asked. When Anakin nodded, he turned to his two companions. “Get that Captain,” he told them.
“The door on the left,” Anakin added.
The two women who so far had listened to their commander and Anakin turned and headed towards the cargo hold.
Anakin stared after them and as soon as they opened the door, he could hear Mussinaro scream. “Help me!”
Oh damn, what now? Anakin dropped his eyes to the ground. Right away Mussinaro was going to spread lies and slander about his ‘stupid mate’ and what had happened. He was good at that and good at sounding credible.
“This is my fourth voyage with Captain Mussinaro,” he told the security man without looking up. “I did not know the registration number of the ship is falsified. I needed a job badly. It never came to my mind that there may be something wrong with this. No money, no chance to be choosy.” He sighed.
In the cargo hold, Mussinaro was ranting and raging. Anakin only understood the occasional word, but enough to get the gist of what the Captain was saying. Exactly what Anakin had expected. He had saved the shipwrecked despite his stupid underling’s attempts to stop him.
“One thing, you should know”, Anakin told the security man. “I have a criminal record. It’s…”
“You’re not the only one,” the security man said, nodding in the direction of the cargo hold. “Mussinaro would never have voluntarily landed on Noosauko.” A sudden grin appeared on the man’s face. “He won’t be pleased to see me either.”
“Untie me at once!” Mussinaro’s shouted at the top of his voice, followed by what Anakin thought was the two security women sniggering.
“Captain Robash Roviianta,” the security man introduced himself and held out his hand. Anakin shook it. “Anakin Skywalker, stupid underling.”
“Let’s relocate to the office for a proper debrief,” Roviianta said, turned around and walked to the ramp off the ship.
Anakin followed, feeling dazed, as if he was caught in a dream. A nice dream. A dream in which his words were believed.

Lucas sat down with a relieved sigh. Most of the times, he felt completely healthy, but the short walk from the court room to the bar had exhausted him completely. He was so tired of being tired all the time.
The doctor had told him it would take time until he was completely recovered. He had also told Lucas that instead of complaining about his weakness he should praise the gods that he was still alive.
Lucas sighed again. Yes, he knew that the doctor was right, but he could not help being impatient to get better.
The door to the bar swung open, and Anakin walked into the bar. He looked around for a moment before spotting Lucas. A big smile appeared on his face as he hastened over.
“You missed the best bit,” he announced proudly.
“Better than seeing that bastard go down for a long time?” Lucas wondered.
Anakin’s smile diminished somewhat. “For me it is,” he said. “Not that interesting for you, I guess.”
“Don’t talk rubbish.” Shura appeared behind Anakin. “We are as happy as you are. - Almost as happy at least.” She took Anakin’s hand and shook it. “Congratulations on your new job.”
“What new job?” Lucas asked, feeling left out. But then he thought of his manners. “Congratulations! Well done. You deserve it.”
“He’s been asked to join the local defence fleet,” Shura told him.
“No doubt in large parts thanks to your telling them how I flew the ship towards yours,” Anakin told him. “You made it sound much more dramatic than it was.”
“I did not,” Lucas stated. He shook his head. The memory of the strange ship flying madly through the meteorite cloud, then speeding towards them without any sign of slowing down was all too vividly engraved in his memory. He had seen no way how that approaching ship would not collide full speed with their already stricken vessel. Expecting to die in a violent explosion is not something easily forgotten.
“It is not Starfleet yet, but definitely a step towards your goal,” Shura said.
Lucas nodded. Anakin’s desire to join Starfleet had been the dominant topic of their conversations. That and the villainy of Captain Mussinaro.
“Let’s celebrate properly,” Shura announced. “Both your new job and the court sending your former employer down.” She turned and walked over to the bar.
Anakin stood up and made to follow her, but Lucas grabbed his sleeve and said, “Sit down. We are inviting you to properly celebrate your victory and your new job.”
Anakin sat down and looked confused. Lucas wondered when the last time had been Anakin had just celebrated something leave alone being invited to celebrate something he’s done. Probably quite a while ago. “It is time we thank you properly for saving our lives. - It is the least we can do.”
He turned to see Shura walking towards them, holding a tray with a bottle of sparkling wine and three glasses on it, holding some menus under her arm. He could not help grinning. “It helps that Shura likes you. - So do I off course.” He turned to Anakin and added. “Can’t help liking the man who saved our lives.”
“It’s what the law demands,” Anakin said.
“Yes, it is,” Shura declared as she put the tray on the table, laying the manus on the table. “But you could have followed your Captain’s lead and just ignored the distress call. You did not. Even though you expected to get into trouble for it.”
“You even had to get into a bit of fisticuffs to rescue us,” Lukas added.
At long last, a smile spread over Anakin’s face. He watched as Shura filled the glasses and handed one to Anakin and one to Lucas. She sat down and raised her glass. “To justice being done and your new job.”
“To justice and a new job,” Lucas and Anakin echoed.

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