Star Wars: Darkness Rising

PART 3

CHAPTER 1: SEARCHING FOR JERR KHAN

          Ferben approached the bridge of the Union ship, admiral Granka stood observing the distant planet they've been keeping a close eye on for the last four months, Ferben saw the general stand by one side reading a datapad.
          Granka turned to settle his gaze on the young Jedi.
"Well, young one, what's the plan; how much longer are we going to wait here?" He asked with frustration in his tone.
          Ferben scratched his head, he had no clue on what to do but didn't want to seem incompetent in the eyes of the admiral.
"We wait as long as it takes, until Jerr Khan leaves, then we follow him."
         The admiral sighed and addressed the Jedi knight, "We don't have all the time in the world, in two months we might have a real problem on our hands."
        "That problem will go away once Jaden uses his influence, I wouldn't worry too much about admiral Xenon."
"I hope you're right kid, you should check in on your friend though, the medical droids tell me there might be a problem with him." Added the admiral.
         Ferben frowned at the comment, "What kind of problem?" He asked. The admiral shrugged.
"Go see him if you get the chance, he hasn't left his quarters in more than a week."
         Ferben left the bridge and headed for their private quarters, their rooms were down the corridor, adjacent to each other, he entered Jaden's quarters and found his friend still in bed staring at the ceiling.
"Are you ok Jaden?" He asked with concern.
         Jaden gave him a strange look before he responded, "No I'm not ok, how much longer are we going to be here? I don't do ships very well."
"Are you feeling claustrophobic?" Asked Ferben still demonstrating concern.
"I'm fine! I just need out of this metal box that's all, I don't do ships well!"
          Ferben noticed burn marks on the far wall of Jaden's room, "What happened there?"
He asked with a pronounced frown, "I was bored and I practiced with my lightsaber."
"Are you out of your mind Jaden, we have to explain that now, and probably pay for it."
        "Yep, out of my mind is about right,  I've been talking to my friend you know..." He took his lightsaber in his hand and showed it to his friend as he spoke.
"...My friend wants to go to Nal-Hutta, I want to go too, we want to play with the Sith."
         Ferben sat on a nearby chair, "I think you have space dementia, you should check in at the medical bay."
"I told you I'm fine, I meditate and then I'm fine, I just need off this ship! Lets go find something to do, away from here."
        "We can't do anything, you know our orders are to observe and follow Jerr Khan, frankly I thought Sylus would be here by now, I really don't know what to do next."
"Then lets go find him on Korriban." Exclaimed Jaden smiling.
          Ferben looked around the room, "Maybe he's not there anymore."
"If that's the case why isn't he here? Maybe he got hurt? maybe he crashed? maybe he's dead? and we've been sitting here in space for the last four months!"
         "Don't think like that, and if you want to go out, take your ship and fly around for a while man, get out of this room at least."
"Yes, good idea I can go to Nal-Hutta and check the tourists sights."
"Never seen you so eagered for a fight before?" Asked Ferben smiling.
         Jaden sat up in bed. "It's not about a fight, I don't do ships well!" He yelled and threw his lightsaber against the far wall in anger.
         Ferben used force pull to retreive his friend's weapon, he held it in his hands for a while.
"I never heard you complain before?"
"I was never cooked up in a ship for four months, I need to be on firm ground buddy, planet side beckons."
"Tell you the truth I'm getting kinda tired of this waiting too." Expressed Ferben.
       "Yes you see, we can both go look for Jerr Khan, place a tracking device in his ship and then go home, we can follow him later, and we won't deal with the looming threat of the grand admiral either."
         Ferben smiled, "Granka was worried about the same thing, I'm sure admiral Xenon will think twice before messing with us, after how you spoke to him."
"Think about it twice? Yeah that's funny, maybe he'll think twice how we need to take turns cleaning latrines." Ferben frowned at his friend.
"What are you talking about?"
        "I bluffed him Ferben, when he figures it out he'll have our heads!"
Ferben frowned further, "Bluff? What do you mean Jaden?"
"Everything I said was bullshit, the threats, the insults, oh you just wait until he comes for us, it will be fun."
         Ferben recollected the events from four months ago, "You didn't lie, you're a Kal-Drunn you have your family's connections?"
"I'm a Kal-Drunn in name only."
         Ferben rose form his chair and handed him his lightsaber, "Meaning?" He asked with dread.
"Meaning you know I don't like my family."
"Yes, but....your father and grandfather....I mean..."   The young knight struggled to decipher where Jaden was headed, he didn't have to wait for long.
"I haven't spoken to them in years, if they find out what I said to the admiral my ass will be the one in trouble not Xenon's"
          Ferben paced the room with worry in his step, "Wait, wait...all those times you left to be with your family, to go visit....then you...."
"I never went, made a stop somewhere, visited some worlds, had fun elsewhere; stayed in my ship at times....never this long!"
         "Jaden? What is wrong...are you mad! why would you not tell me that?"
"Didn't want master Lok giving me a lecture about it."
"No I mean when we confronted Xenon, you should've told me?"
          Jaden smiled at him. "Well it was your plan, they were talking in that room and you had the brilliant idea to listen in, 'Hey Jaden why don't you use your last name as an influence to end this now?' I believe those were your words."
         Ferben stood there flabbergasted at the revelation, "I wanted to help the admiral and the general, you should've told me about your family right there, why didn't you?"
         "I don't know! Ok, I don't know; it sounded like a fun thing to do to that blue bastard, I wasn't thinking, besides I thought we would come here and get this done really fast, now we are stuck; and in two months the council would want to talk to us I'm sure, if they don't already know about it."
         Ferben paced the small room, "We are going to get kicked out of the order." He exclaimed. Jaden smiled before he retorted with; "If we are lucky."
"This isn't funny Jaden! This is all we've known our entire lives, were would we go?"
         Jaden pointed towards the wall, "Nal-Hutta?"
"Does the admiral know?" Jaden shook his head still smiling at his friend.
"Oh boy, we're in deep trouble here." Exclaimed a concerned Ferben.
         He walked out of the room, before the door closed he heard Jaden yell, "Oh I'll just stay here with my friend, we'll play with the wall some more!"
        While the admiral stared at the planet before them, general Hoxe approached him, "I hate to say this but maybe we should go home now." Granka looked at him under a frown.
"What happened to 'Jerr Khan owes me some dead commandos?' "
         Hoxe scratched hi trimmed beard. "Lets annalyse this for a moment, Jerr Khan can stay there indefinitely, or maybe he already left, gone in one of the many transports or merchant ships we had to let pass, we stay another two months and then what?"
         The admiral turned to face his friend, "That won't be a problem, our mission here is legal, the worst Xenon could do is recall us and sent another ship in our place, what he'll do to you and me will be of some concern but it will have nothing to do with this particular mission."
          The admiral sounded as reassuring as he could, "To tell you the truth admiral, my main concern is the commandos, I worked so hard to bring back this program, and I fear that Chiss bastard will take this away from me."
          "The commandos disbandment requires an executive order from the G.U.S.S. leadership, he can't make his own descition on what to do with them."
"I'll feel better if we knew the whereabouts of Jerr Khan." Exclaimed the general.
          Admiral Granka sighed deeply, "Me too, but we can't go to Nal-Hutta without permission from the Hutts."
"I know, I know; they'll never concent to us landing our troops there." Retorted Hoxe, he thought for a moment.
"But the Jedi can go look for him."
          Granka masticated the idea in his head before he delivered his opinion, "I have my reservations." Hoxe frowned at his comment.
"About my idea, or the Jedi?"
"If Sylus was here I'll jump all over that, in fact he would suggest it before you could, I trust him, this two knights seem a little green to me; Sylus would've acted by now."
          "Glad to know I'm not the only one thinking that way." Added the general. They saw Ferben approach. Admiral Granka greeted him with a smile, "Did you check in on your friend?" He asked.
           Ferben nodded but the demeanor he displayed wasn't reassuring, "We have a problem." He retorted.
"What is it, is Jaden ok?" Asked the admiral with genuine concern.
"Yes, well not that per say, is about Xenon and what happened with him, what Jaden said."
"Yes?" Pressed the general.
           "Well, it seems Jaden lied, everything he said about his family and what they would do to admiral Xenon if he bothered us was untrue."
           The men looked at the young knight but didn't speak, "Feel free to add something here, because now we really might be in trouble." Added Ferben.
           Granka took on a pensive posture, "Well young Jedi, I know the admiral Xenon is arrogant and won't stand for an insult such as that, you can bet youtr lightsaber that in two months he'll look into the accusations. He'll bring the incident before the Union's war council and the senate as well, and they'll bring the Jedi order into this."
          Hoxe smiled at the young man before he added to the admiral's comment, "At that point you may be punished by all three groups."
         "Insulting a superior officer carries a prison sentence of at least three years, the senate will levy a fine which if you can't pay will add years to your sentence, and as for the Jedi I'm not too clear how they'll deal with that, I'm sure they will bestow a fitting punishment of their own." Retorted the admiral.
           Hoxe cleared his throat, "And Xenon will pursue for the maximum sentence allowed which could be five years not three, you could be looking at maybe ten years of imprisonment, definitely no less than seven that much I know."
           He had a wide grin when he spoke the words, Ferben gazed at them with an annoyed look.
"You two are enjoying this aren't you?"
"Not at all young Jedi, considering that now there will definetly be some sort of retribution towards us. I'll probably lose my command and I'll be demoted, so no I'm not enjoying this." Expressed the admiral.
         "I'll lose my commandos, and I guess I'll be lucky to be a captain afterwards." Added general Hoxe. Ferben shook his head.
"All thanks to your friend." Spoke the admiral, Ferben's demeanor changed.
"It wasn't his fault, I told him to do that."
"Then we have you too to thank as well." Retorted the general.
           "You two seem so calm about it I'm hoping there's a punch line here somewhere." Commented Ferben.
"No, there's no joke here; sometimes one gets into trouble and there are options to contemplate, but we are so deep in shit now any reaction we have is irrelevant, we won't escape this. No need to waste energy on anger when it won't spare us the trouble both of you put us in." Added the admiral.
"What if we could resolved this here and now?" Asked Ferben.
          General Hoxe looked at his friend, then back at the Jedi knight, "Resolved how?" He asked with a frown.
"We can go to the planet and search for Jerr Khan." The admiral and Hoxe looked at each other again.
"We contemplated that option, but we don't even know if Jerr Khan is still there."
"He is." Retorted Ferben.
        "How do you know?" Asked the general.
"If he leaves in a transport we would know, we can sense others like us nearby, our connection to the force creates a proximity field of energy, we would know."
          The admiral thought about it for a while, "We are already in trouble; can't get any worse, so I guess it won't hurt to try something new and extreme, what did you have in mind?" He asked.
          Ferben cleared his throat, "Jaden and I would land on Nal-Hutta and find his ship, we can place a tracking device in it's hull and we can leave, inform the council and the Union, then we can follow him later, safely and without triggering a confrontation with him."
          Granka stared at the young Jedi, then at the General, Hoxe nodded as he shrugged, Granka looked at Ferben with eyes full of purpose.
"Get yourselves ready, I'll have the general prepare the commandos in case you need assistance down there."