The Unchronicled Adventures of Ahsoka Tano, Book Eight

Chapter Sixty-Seven: Into Battle

CHRISTOPHERUS KRUGER 

Christo ran down the hallway towards the cockpit. Lux had just called him over the comm to take over flying the New Hope, but hadn't said why. A shriek of pain – Ahsoka's, by the sound of it – immediately answered his question.

As he reached the cockpit, he ran into Lux, who had Ahsoka in his arms. She was breaking heavily, and it looked like she was doing everything in her power not to scream.

"What going on–" Christo began to ask, but Lux cut him off.

"Just... Just get the hell out of the way! My wife is going into labor, if you haven't noticed!" He turned around, yelling down the hallway, "Amni! Get over here, now! It's happening!"

The white-blond Jedi Knight briefly entertained the idea of telling Lux how rude that was, but when he noticed his expression, that wasn't far from crazed with worry, he decided against it. Instead, he nodded to Lux, who hurried off down the hallway, murmuring soothingly to Ahsoka. A flash of pale blue lekku and a black combat suit informed him that Amni had joined them.

Joker, one of the Clone Troopers that the New Hope was transporting, suddenly came out of the makeshift trooper barracks in one of the larger cargo holds. "Sir, what's going on? Sparky heard screams, and–"

"It's General Tano. She's going into labor." Upon seeing the trooper's eyes widen, he remembered that practically no one knew that Ahsoka was with child. A moment later, he added, "Yeah. She was pregnant. I found out yesterday. Is Cookie or Ringo aboard?"

Cookie and Ringo were two of the best clone pilots in the squadrons that the Jedi had brought with them on their mission to Onderon, and close friends of Joker's. "No, but Kip's here. Should I–"

Kip was another good pilot. "Get him. I need him as a copilot. Put some of the other guys on guns. Now, please." Somehow, Christo was managing to keep a cool head, even as blaster fire from the nearby Imperial Star Destroyers rocked the ship.

He ran into the cockpit, taking the ship off of the temporary autopilot Lux must have turned on. He flipped a couple of switches and tapped several commands out on a keyboard, and the ship began to take evasive actions. Kip hurried inside a moment later, quickly bringing his station online.

"Okay, check the gravity generators," Christo told him. "Ahsoka's giving birth – yeah, she's pregnant – and if we end up having to get fancy with our flight maneuvers, then we don't want to make this any harder on her."

Thankfully, Kip was choosing not to make any comments. That was good. It was already going to be hard enough to fly the ship with the Imperials bearing down on them. And, even though the gunners were keeping the TIE fighters off their back, Christo was pretty sure that he couldn't deal with much more stress.

Suddenly, he felt the subtle influence of the Force, quietly offering him guidance and new courses of action he might follow. As it flowed through his mind, it called up a memory of a tactic that Jedi Masters Plo Koon and Saesee Tiin had invented long ago.

"A precision hyperspace jump!" he said softly, then jerked the controls hard to the right to avoid incoming laser fire from two closing cruisers.

"What?" Kip asked.

"A precision hyperspace jump," he repeated, wincing as the debris from a TIE fighter that one of the gunmen (probably Sparky) had downed came a little too close for comfort. "You've probably heard of it as a micro-jump. Basically, you go into hyperspace and then use the power of a gravity well – a planet, for example – to slingshot your ship back out."

"Sounds risky," the trooper remarked, but a glance at his monitor told Christo that Kip was already preparing to set in coordinates. "And Rex would have killed me saying something like this, sir, but I've always liked risky!"

Christo smiled, sending the coordinates from his monitor to his copilot's. "Okay. On my mark..." They were getting dangerously close to three cruisers, one of which was turning its attention towards the Hope. Despite the heavy damage the shields were taking, Christo hit the accelerator, urging the ship forward.

"Sir," Kip began, his tone holding a warning note.

"Wait."

They drew closer, and the shields were nearing failure. "Sir!"

"I said wait!"

The warning icon next to the screen monitoring the shields and hull damage began to flash red and beep, adding to the overall cacophony of the battle. "Get ready," Christo whispered. "And... NOW!"

For a split-second, pilot and copilot could see the bluish-white tunnel of hyperspace, before Onderon's gravitational pull sucked them back out. The planet appeared in the viewport, and Christo and Kip began keying in the necessary commands for entering a planet's atmosphere.

The sky was empty of TIE fighters and other unfriendly craft – it looked like the Imperials hadn't been expecting such a sudden move, and were still trying to catch up. Switching on the automated landing sequence, the Jedi Knight left the cockpit, leaving Kip to monitor the ship's operations.

He headed for the back room, to see if there was anything he could help Amni with. Because after all, they had a bit of a problem, related to Ahsoka going into labor at such an inconvenient time.

How were they going to get her back to the Base safely?

*Ahsoka has gone into labor, and her husband's worry for her continues to escalate. How will the passengers of the New Hope manage to evade Imperial capture? And what could Shima be planning? Will Ahsoka give birth successfully, or will this be deja vu for what happened to Padme when she had her own children? You'll find out in the next thrilling chapter of The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano!

Okay, when I was writing this, I was hearing the background music in the video above on a loop. I was like, THIS LIKE IS THAT ONE SCENE WHERE LUKE BLOWS UP THE DEATH STAR, and from there on I was hearing the London Symphony Orchestra playing the Star Wars theme... I'm weird like that...

I actually looked up 'micro-jump' on Wookieepedia, so that part is accurate. And the part at the beginning where Lux is all like, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU ALL was just me trying to experiment with Lux loosing his cool.

So, anyways, next chapter is coming soon! Bye!

Blow up the Death Star without using your targeting computer and may the Force be with you,

Sharron