The New Adventures of Nomi Darklighter

Chapter 89 - The New Hideout

The ships of the small Resistance cell landed smoothly in the large cave that the asteroid offered them as a new hideout.
Dash looked at the readouts and sighed.
"Great, there's no breathable atmosphere. We'll need breathing masks for the first few days. It's not going to make the job easy."
Biggs, who was sitting in the co-pilot's seat, glanced at his father and nodded in agreement to this comment. His brother Corran, who had been sitting in the spare seat during the flight, stood up, opened a drawer, took out breathing masks and tossed them to his older brother and father.
"Thank you, son," Dash said before putting the mask on.
He hated the thing because of the strange smell and the feeling it gave him.
Corran laughed when he saw his father's face before he put on the mask and put on his own.
"It could be worse, father," he said in a voice altered by the mask.
Biggs had caught the mask in midair and put it on without a word.
After his sons had put on their breathing masks, Dash stood up.
"Let's go boys, our new home is waiting for us."
Followed by his sons, he went to the hatch, opened it and lowered the ramp. The air was thin and contained too little oxygen to keep humans or humanoids alive. There were only a few in their midst who would not need breathing masks now. But they would need them when the life support system was installed.
As they walked down the ramp, they saw others doing the same in the faint light of the landed spaceships. Most of them were also wearing breathing masks.
Dash smiled as he watched his wife and eldest leave the Aquarius. Dash Jr. carried a crate and set it down amidst the spaceships.

Nomi Darklighter climbed onto the crate and waited patiently until everyone had gathered around her before she began to speak. As her voice was muffled by the breathing mask, she amplified it with the Force. This way, everyone could hear what she had to say.
"First of all, I would like to thank everyone who has agreed to follow me on this path. I know that it will not be an easy one and that some of us may not be around to witness our victory. But we will be victorious. I believe in us and in the cause we are fighting for. But first things first. We have to make this asteroid habitable. That's why we brought components for a magcon projector and an atmosphere generator. Once we've assembled and installed them, most of us can get by without breathing masks."
Muffled cheers were heard before Nomi commanded silence with a wave of her hand.
"I have counted more human and humanoid members than non-human, so the
atmosphere will be adjusted to suit their needs. For our non-human members, there will be other benefits to compensate for the inconvenience."
The non-human Resistance members nodded in agreement to this announcement from their leader, who continued speaking.
"It won't be easy to make this cave a habitable hideout, but together we can do it. If we stick together, we will achieve our goal. And now let's begin and may the Force be with us."

The Jedi Master jumped off the crate to the applause of the crowd. She walked over to the Aquarius to unload the components for the magcon projector with her eldest. Others were unloading power generators and power cords.
So this is how it starts, Nomi thought as she assembled the projector at the cave entrance. It would keep the artificial atmosphere in and the vacuum of space out. Dash Jr. helped her with the work and handed her the tools. He smiled behind his breathing mask at how eagerly his mother was working. She looked almost happy to him.
"Almost there," she said as she connected the last module to the projector and closed the hatch. "Now we need power."

She looked over at her husband, who was laying the power cords from a generator to the magcon projector. He was so focused on his work that he didn't see the small boulder and tripped. His breathing mask, which he had only loosely attached to his face, went flying as he fell. In a split second, he clutched at his throat and gasped for air. The Jedi Master jumped up and ran to her husband. There, she took a deep breath before placing her own mask on Dash's face. The former mercenary coughed and couldn't breathe. Nomi beckoned her eldest to her.
"Help your father," she said to him in the Force while holding her breath so as not to inhale the poisonous air.
Dash Jr. rushed to his parents and took his father in his arms. The older Rendar was finally able to breathe evenly again. Meanwhile, Nomi, still holding her breath, summoned the Force and reached for Dash's mask that lay a few meters away. In the blink of an eye, the mask flew into her outstretched hand and Nomi put it on and took a deep breath.
Then she turned her attention to her husband and son, who were sitting on the uneven ground of the cave.
"Is everything okay?" She asked, now able to speak again.
Her son nodded his head, still holding his father tightly. Dash Rendar felt embarrassed and freed himself from his son's embrace.
"Thank you, Junior," he said and slowly stood up.
Nomi looked at her husband worriedly.
"Are you sure, darling? Maybe you should see the medic. Until we get the atmosphere generator installed, the mixture of gases here is toxic. You've got a lot of it in your lungs."
Her husband waved her off.
"I'm fine, sweeth..."
But he was unable to finish the sentence as he broke into a coughing fit.
"Yes, I can see how well you are. How can you be so stubborn? Take your father to the Outrider and I'll send the medic to him."
Nomi pulled out her comlink and asked the medic to examine Dash. Then she went back to the magcon projector and resumed her work while Dash Jr. took his father to the YT-2400.

Nomi sighed, seeing that she was right about what she had said in her speech, it wasn't going to be that easy to set up their hideout on this asteroid.