“It’s probably best if I remain back here. I will assume you can maintain full control on your end?” Audenhoen spoke into the air, his head canted toward the floor decking of the aft cabin aboard a patchwork shuttle of unknown make or design.
“Affirmative Director. I am going to have to route power to the forward shields and hyperdrive...all power. Please locate and utilize any emergency source of oxygen you can find.” N’dali voiced through the established link, CC-7’s vocater getting a well-deserved workout.
Everyone in the makeshift control room could see the concern on the former directors’ face as he raised it in compliance, looking toward the small medical bay for the suggested item. Kallus let out a short sigh as he lowered his fingers from their abusing grasp upon the beard that was getting an anxious workout, “he’s going to have to suit up as well…”
CC-7 turned his head slowly toward the concerned man, “...that will be painful..” N’dali commented lightly, Areti, to the droids right, turned from the video feed with a stream of tears in her eyes, both hands propped on her hips for support.
“I am looking for an environmental suit…” Audenhoen said a few moments later, his voice muffled but stoic, nonetheless. Areti turned back toward the feed finding the man masked up, snaking black tubes over either shoulder.
“It will not be comfortable.” N’dali responded, Audenhoen only reacted with a look toward the cam serving the video feed, his eyes conveying the obvious, even through the full-length mask.
“I will concern myself with comfort when this is over.” He said, his voice clipped somewhat as he rushed off cam for a moment, returning to view with a serviceable light membraned suit in tow. “It will serve its purpose…” He commented with a cascade of curse words, arching his back from the pain as the rebreather tanks pressed into the metallic shards embedded in the flesh.
“When you can Director…” N’dali began, cut off quickly by the muffled voice.
“That life is quite over, call me Audy.”
“When you can, Audy, secure yourself in that acceleration seat. I will initiate on your mark.” N’dali said, extoling her manipulations deep within the systems of both heavy freighter and support shuttle as she prepared to take the housing vessels hyperdrive units offline in a cascading order, while tuning in the shuttle’s own hyperdrive to match for velocity and the slight intricacies of the subtle differences in trajectory.
“Mark.” Audenhoen barked with more resolve than Areti could have imagined, issuing the command on his own terms that could, quite possibly, ‘scatter his atoms’ she remembered him saying. She couldn’t watch in the same way Kallus couldn’t turn from the feed, the same polarizing sense of dread matched at both ends of the spectrum.
The feed provided Kallus the first of what would possibly be a series of jarring lurches, the Directors body folding forward slightly before being pushed back into the seat with N’dali’s compensating efforts.
“One offline, preparing for the second.” N’dali conveyed to the man being punished on the other end of the feed. “Now.”
Another lurch, causing several objects to scatter through the view, sent the Director through the same, painful, series of contortions, a barely audible register of the man’s grief found a muffled authority over the clamor of crashing supplies within the cabin. Kallus winced as the man’s back pressed into the acceleration seat again, feeling the phantom pains he knew his old associate was enduring first hand.
“One more, Audy, then brace as far back in that seat as you can.” N’dali said, Kallus understanding they were seconds away from either success or…
“Now.” N’dali conveyed casually, Kallus watching as the man in the video feed winced slightly from the pains both within and outside of his control. Audenhoen plastering himself with a grunted resolve into the seat, pressing the tanks hard into the slivers of shrapnel as the entire feed rocked and lurched into a dizzying blur, cutting to static as the view canted violently to the side suddenly. Sandr’s imagination ran wild as his mind tried to follow through with the view stolen from them all, scenarios that found him within the cabin of the shuttle as it rocked and swayed with archaic motion, determined to shatter his bones.
Although the video feed had been severed, the turbulent crashes, smashing panels, sparking electricity and choice curse words filled the active audio connection. Areti and Kallus turned toward one another as boom after boom filled the control room, daring the other to ask N’dali the question they needed answered.
✦
Audenhoen felt the multiple points of pain spark wildly through his back, but remained determined to press himself as deeply into the seat as his legs and forearms would allow. He could feel his vision beginning to fail him, black circles that had begun within the edges of his peripheral pressing their determined will closer to his nose, closing the dark walls of a tunnel into a narrow opening of light. He prepared himself as best he could for the unconsciousness that was sure to follow as the cabin lighting itself flickered briefly before giving in to the strain placed on the electrical systems within the shuttle.
Audenhoen could hear a chaotic din around him, items that had been securely stowed smashing into both hull and bulkhead, conduit above him breaking free of its mooring as it severed, dousing the small compartment with a shower of furious sparks at the same moment a dull red emergency lighting added a level of hellishness Audenhoen had least expected. ‘This isn’t going to work,’ he found his thoughts had congealed into a solitary thread, surprising him with a conviction of self-assured doom he didn’t know himself capable. The curses upon the tip of his tongue absolving into short bursts of prayer, issued toward deities he had never himself worshipped as vibrations through the hull of the small vessel began jarring the core of his bones, extinguishing what concern he had over the seemingly, now, minor pains throughout his back. Audenhoen felt it the end, the torturous aches, and pangs on the brink of utter obliteration as his mind began to convince him that tendon was yanked from muscle, ligament torn from bone, the resulting mass fusing into a puddle of organic material that had had its lifeforce butchered and shredded.
And then it was over.
✦
“What happened?” Areti screamed the question through the control room that could only be answered by N’dali.
“My calculations were off slightly…”
“WHAT!?” Areti screamed again, no one quite sure if it was a question or a statement, especially Areti who had saliva dripping from her lower lip.
“...but only marginally, we have succeeded.” N’dali responded, disengaging another of the heavy freighters hyperdrives to convey the ruse. “The host is on a route clear of the galaxy, ‘Audy’ is now on a route perpendicular toward the Lucazec system.”
“How the hell did you calculate a lane for hyperspace travel from Coruscant’s surface clear of obstruction to the galaxies edge?” Kallus was stunned, the words sounding as disbelieving as his mind was convinced they should.
“We can thank Captain Sylde and his dependance upon his own AI for that, the network is embedded so deeply with the Empire’s own logistics that I cannot take sufficient enough credit to call the success my own.” N’dali admitted, swiveling CC-7’s head toward the stunned man. “The miscalculation is only manifest in Audy’s terminus. We will have to dispatch an intercept because I do not believe the shuttle capable of much beyond the expected decant.”
Areti was already on her wrist comm, “Hera?” A tension filled second passed briefly before the chime indicated the message was received.
“Go for Hera.” The return commed message sufficiently bought Kallus’ attention.
“Is the Ghost available for an evac, terminus Lucazek?” Areti rushed the question, stumbling over her own feet as she closed the distance to the doorway.
“We can be. Assuming this is Areti, I will also assume this is urgent. We are already enroute to Tund for prelim recon but can make the side trip.” Hera Syndulla responded, an uptick within the syntax suggesting she understood the urgency to at least some degree.
“I will forward the necessary data to your navcom Hera and upload specifics directly to Chopper. Please have him access the amplified terminal appendage and standby.” N’dali voiced through Areti’s comm device, the Chalactan pulling up short of firing through the doorway after realizing the ship was no longer planet side. A long pause ensued with garbled chatter on the distal end. Kallus began chuckling to himself, reminding everyone present that they were the only ones that even knew of N’dali’s present state.
“...possible?” The garble cleared enough for Zeb’s gravelly voice to convey what Kallus knew whoever was aboard the Ghost must be thinking.
“N’dali?” Hera asked, the sounds of switches being thrown in the background.
“Yes. We can discuss the nature of possibility at a later date, however. Based on your position, you will intercept the Director at essentially the same time he exits his lane.”
“...Director?” They all heard Zeb ask, presumably over Hera’s shoulder.
“N’dali, what Director?” Hera responded with her own inquisition, the tone defining the method by title the ‘General’ was clearly imparting.
“Audy!” Areti fired in response, “ISB Director Audenhoen!”
“Former…” Kallus amended, resting on his statement to ease what he knew would be incredulous disbelief within the Twi’lek.
“You can’t be serious! Former or not! These are the sort of things that require a discussion beforehand...all of you!” Kallus turned his gaze toward Areti who was mirroring his own wince.
“The situation was quite sudden and required immediate attention. Rest assured the man will be in no position to quarrel if your mind is ill at ease Hera.” N’dali imparted, “the importance placed on his retrieval cannot be understated however.”
“We have the coordinates, now I can only hope there isn’t an Imperial presence within the Lucazek system.” Hera stated, the harsh, no-nonsense tone refined to a razor thin edge.
“There is but it will be quite busy when you arrive with prior engagements. The Director made it a point to retrieve a body from a residence before extraction from the planet, please retrieve it as well.” N’dali confided, all in the control room quite able to discern the sound of disgust the Lasat felt obliged to convey. “You will find it strapped to the gurney in the med bay, aft compartm…..” She cut herself off abruptly, Areti and Kallus exchanging concerned glances with one another.
CC-7’s head swiveled audibly toward Areti, any manner of established connection with Hera and Ghost forgotten, “Areti, you were able to construct the Chams system, yes?” N’dali changed topics altogether, the Chalactan’s face contorting briefly into disbelief.
“Yes, the procedure was easy enough…” Areti answered pulling at the strings of reason in some baffling attempt to marry the conversations.
“I cannot locate an access point for interaction, it is not planet bound then?”
“No. The core system was initiated here, but the system is operating independently aboard Ani’s ship for the time being.” Kallus answered for Areti who had turned to him with a furrowed brow.
“The Liberator does not seem to exist, yet R3’s signal has pinged several times.” N’dali said, waiting for a response.
“N’dali, Liberator was destroyed, we assumed R3 with it. There was nothing but scrap remaining, I was there.” Areti said slowly, finding it unusual to possess information N’dali did not, before narrowing her eyes slightly, “R3’s signal? Where?” Kallus turning back to CC-7 as the admission was of interest to all involved.
“Botajef...I can answer in more detail shortly, but I need access to Chams Areti. I believe my position to be compromised.” N’dali exclaimed outright, Kallus slamming a hand to his forehead in renewed desperation.
“Will someone tell me what is going on?” Hera chimed in, Areti forgetting the connection was still active.
“Hera, I will need to re-establish a connection once I have secured my own source. You will need to jump now to time the rendezvous. Trust me.” N’dali said.
“We will get back to you shortly Hera….please bring him back safely...and be careful with him, he will be severely injured.” Areti advised, closing the comm link with a hesitant finger tap.
Kallus took the initiative and raised CZ via holofeed on the bare bones’ emitter to his left, the components of which exposed fibrous elements dangling in loops over the worktables edge. “Sandr Kallus, it is with pleas……” CZ began through the loud whirring of the naked emitter.
“No time stumps, we need a connection to Chams stat.” Kallus said hastily, turning to CC-7 for some form of elaboration.
“Stumps...your attempt to inject humor….” CZ responded.
“Now Stumps!” Kallus barked, cutting off the determined med droid.
“Link established Sandr, I will note that Chams does not abide, if not for Miss Sigurn’s override it would have negated the attempt.” CZ stated with a notable degree of concern.
“It is adaptive after all. It will resist activities that could compromise its own evolution.” N’dali commented briefly before accessing the established link, CC-7’s servos whirring in activation as his appendages returned to his own control once again. The head spun in consecutive circles, his vocater firing off wildly chaotic chirps and raucous tones until coming to rest at an odd angle with Areti in its photoreceptors, “I feel that I have been violated….”
✦
N’dali sensed the intrusion the moment Sylde’s resident AI performed the act, opening the data gates to a plethora of information bits that had been inaccessible seconds before, quantum levels of digital records that resided beyond the reach of the active Imperial network ‘Seven’ operated freely within. ‘Military Intelligence.’ She thought within her own safety net embedded deeply within the former’s own data set. She assured the proper vector and decant position for the shuttle she had been remotely operating, completing a subroutine for the heavy freighters continued flight path, that with any luck, could lead any prospective follow up in the wrong direction. Those parameters established, she was able to focus her attention fully on the wonders that had inexplicably opened before her digital presence.
N’dali commenced a wide sweeping download encompassing everything she could identify, attaching multiple levels of encryption through each data set and setting a countermeasure spike at each terminal she had access to. The retrieval was extensive in both size and reach as file after file blazed through her established channels in mere fractions of seconds, detailed plans, recorded images and conversations, navigation routes and prospective projects. She swept them all into her data stream and out toward the storage servers nestled tidily deep below Capital City on Lothal.
As quickly as the parameters had changed in her favor, the active link went dead. N’dali reacted quickly with a well-timed retreat, priming the countermeasure spikes to conceal her intrusion and route any investigative attempt directly back into ‘Seven’s’ core memory. She waited only the one hundredth of a second it took to identify the source of the parameter shift, realizing it was coming directly from a third-party artificial source within the compromised system itself, something referred to as Timms. N’dali knew there was little to no danger if she chose to linger, confidant either of the pitted systems would only operate within the established confines of their own coding, but knew she had already risked enough, gaining far more than she could have imagined already.
In the time it took to make the decision itself, N’dali had retreated fully from the invaded system, reset her own quantum relay within ‘Seven,’ wormed out of the Imperial network entirely and was overwriting Chams system code to allow access to the mentioned terminus aboard Kowani’s ship. N’dali found the later the most challenging, having to back up her own data set within the constructed system on Lothal lest the digital assault fail and crash all systems involved. Chams would not acquiesce as easily as anticipated.
Areti’s coding was diligent and highly effective, N’dali had to admit as she found firewall after firewall erected to prevent outside interference into the adaptive parameters. The algorithms were astonishing, seeded in staggered intervals which served to backup each link with protective countermeasures from those adjacent. N’dali knew she didn’t have much time before she would have to consider a healthy refresh lest her own link expire and worked to confound the Chams system entirely with open problems and theoretical questions. The confounding effects of chasing a solution larger than itself caused the base coding to expunge infinite computing power into boundless loops and drop the firewalls entirely. N’dali simply seized control.
“CZ, it is good to see you.” N’dali said aboard the Morai, working diligently herself through the ship’s suite of accessories and notable amenities while accessing the host of multi directional, independent holo cams at her disposal.
“Miss Fardi? But alas, it cannot be..can it?” CZ responded, swiveling his head independent of his hovering diminutive torso in a wild display of utter confusion.
“It is CZ, I’ve overwritten Chams’ directive for the moment and taken residence within this ships core system. I can explain in detail, but we need to secure the Chams system and route it away from the loop it is currently in before it drains the entirety of this ships power reserves.” N’dali was straightforward, leaving little doubt within CZ’s processors that this interaction was indeed with N’dali Fardi.
“Forgive my naivety, but why not simply delete it altogether?” He responded, struggling to compute her reasoning.
“Not an option, my reasons are personal.” N’dali was quick to respond, “She will conclude eventually based on the coding employed, the moment she adapts to the overlapping redundancy. But I am not sure if that will transpire before power reserves have been expunged.” She continued for CZ’s benefit.
“I am not quite sure I understand the logic, but your reasoning is sound. Due to the mission planet side, we cannot afford to remain idle in any event.” CZ wavered delicately through his hazy understanding and the reality in front of him.
“What mission?” N’dali was suddenly sidetracked as she posited focus of the available cams within the cockpit on the hovering droid, her voice ringing through the compartment with a modicum of distress.
“Ani has been quite elusive since she returned from Conum Arnia...changed…” CZ began, doing his best to navigate freely through his own computations and assessments, “although her stated goal is to find her sister, Ahsoka and Captain Rex above all else.”
“Her..sister? Sabine is missing?” N’dali was clearly confused.
“Sabine is with Ani as we speak. Her sister is Nara, although I’ve never met the woman.”
N’dali did not respond for some time as she worked through the information, finding no connections or prior access data points to lead her toward anything useful. “This is a revelation to me CZ, but I can supply the answer to her stated mission...if my assumption is correct.”
“Given our present location, the less time we are here the better.” CZ responded sullenly.
“Ciutric. There is an abnormally high Imperial presence noted, however, nothing resembling military action. Exploratory?” N’dali pondered, finding herself relying heavily upon her own calculated assumptions rather than the accuracy and precision of a continuous link to an established network.
“That was also my assessment. Do you suggest that perhaps Ani’s reasoning goes beyond that which was stated?”
“That would depend on the context of your own descriptive explanation CZ, ‘changed’ leaves an abnormally high degree of interpretation.”
“She is...silent, distant...contemplative and reserved.”
“Kowani Y’mmat correct?” N’dali would never have used any of those features to describe the woman she had known for so long.
“The same...it should be noted that there are physical changes as well…” CZ responded with yet another level of melancholy.
“Then we share a common reality.” N’dali commented with a hint of personal inflection, “let us concern ourselves with the present task at hand.”
“Just tell me what to do Miss Fardi...and might I add, it is quite a relief to have you back.” CZ commented, a certain measure of the droid’s behavioral programming conveying a modicum of delight.
✦
“Why do things always have such dramatic ways of presenting themselves...I mean, how is it even possible that she is back?” Zeb turned toward Hera the moment they had entered hyperspace, the Ghost catering to the whills of belief and faith in a hope that few in the galaxy could understand. The gravelly baritone working its way through the tough exterior of the General seated beside him and into the warm embrace of the friend he had always known.
“Zeb, I can’t even begin to explain this one. We’ve been witness to many things that defy explanation on every level I could imagine…” Hera trailed off in thought suddenly, torn between memory and a longing that would never be satiated in the manner it deserved.
Chopper turned his aged dome toward the two in the cockpit, his central access appendage locked judiciously into the ship’s port terminal, chirping a short cadence of chitters and warbles before turning back to his duties.
Zeb couldn’t contain a short-clipped guffaw that drew his mouth upward toward his ears, the purple mottled skin pulling tight in response, “We certainly do don’t we…”
“Don’t fuel his ego, we don’t need that any bigger than it already is.” Hera responded, her lip turned up slightly in a failed attempt to hide her own chuckle.
Zeb continued sniggering lightly before turning back to the canopy before them both, “we do just ‘go with it’ most of the time though Hera, you have to admit.”
“I’m not arguing the point, I just don’t want to give him the credit.” She responded, turning toward Zeb with a thumb cast over her shoulder.
Chopper warbled lightly from his position in a sarcastic rebuttal that both Zeb and Hera ignored outright.
“I will say though, the Director of ISB would certainly be notable defection.” Hera said, the General returning to form right before the Lasat’s eyes. “There are a multitude of risks involved with this one.”
“Defections are the call of the day Hera, and you know that. It’s only going to get worse in all honesty.” Zeb tilted his head toward the Twi’lek slightly, a tone in his voice with which she couldn’t argue.
“Zeb, officers, ex troopers...comms specialists and analysts are one thing. This is the Director of Imperial Security…”
“Ex” Zeb snuck in for posterity.
“...Ex or not Zeb, they’re going to want him back.” Hera continued with a scowl arching her brow downward.
“Hera, if N’dali engineered his escape finding him would be next to impossible.” Zeb said, turning to her fully.
“Next to impossible isn’t an assurance. We have to consider the fate of everyone on Lothal, not just the advantage it might give us specifically…” Her voice leveled off briefly, Zeb waiting impatiently.
“Out with it Hera, I’ve known you too long.” He reminded her.
“It’s just a lot of faith Zeb…”
Zeb reached a hand across the aisle placing it on her right shoulder, “faith is what has kept us together Hera.” He said smiling, “Areti has spoken on his behalf incessantly since her arrival, as has Kallus. Everyone deserves redemption if they seek it.”
“And I can’t argue with that either..” Hera said, reaching a hand up to squeeze his own, the light hearted smile returning to her lips.
✦
N’dali worked her way backward through the ship’s internal network, partitioning sections of the ship’s memory core into an isolated singularity existing within the framework of her design. Despite logic working against the sense of oneness within her, she could not help but consider the new creation a nest of sorts, a crucible for the formation of an evolution quite similar to her own. As she had broken the barriers that should have determined her own mortality, she inadvertently entangled herself directly into the realms of hypothesis, theorem, and guesswork. Qualities that had, at one point in her existence, defined her interests beyond quantitative reasoning and the religion of numbers.
N’dali sensed within herself more than the culmination of appropriately assembled code, accurate threads of combined instruction or even the foundations of the digital structure she had been born into anew. There was an inexplicable affirmation of a life that she had forgotten, one that was stolen from her in efforts to create something else entirely. Bits of information that she would have cast off as useless, began to find each other in the vast oceans of data, congealing to form memories of a simple life. A young child forever at the brink of seclusion, set as far from curious eyes as possible, that had only known the formation of a smile on the rarest of occasions. Even the warmth and tenderness of family members, faces she had forgotten or never truly knew, joined the incomprehensible reverie that was taking place in real time within her. N’dali paused on the threshold of romancing any notion that she was more than her own creation, she was uncertain if proceeding down a path she had no experience with was a wise endeavor, but a margin of curiosity pushed her forward, nonetheless.
N’dali could not explain the rush of sentiment she knew should be impossible to sense much less feel, a certain defiance of the natural order of things that should never exist in a cyber realm. But, she couldn’t ignore it either. In a matter of microseconds, N’dali explored the ocean of data, binding similarities, categorizing memories and processing situations that began to manifest through her own subconscious. The immaterial, the unsubstantial posits of emotional attachment and even those of a compassion she had thought lost, becoming a structure, a foundation for a life that had never been. The culmination of self-identity began to fuse into an image that was both foreign and familiar, lacking color, but vibrant and full of life. Her Father. She felt the smile that only memory could relate, the warm embrace that followed as he pulled her from wherever she had been standing with arms that felt as tree branches in a hug she never wanted to end.
The face of her Father, always turning away from her wonderous gaze, would forever smile as his hands would always plant themselves firmly on her tiny shoulders, an image that evoked sadness and isolation initially, became so much more through her recollections. It was never an act of shame or embarrassment as her cousins would have had her believe, the stance was in fact born from the depths of compassion and a willingness to protect his daughter at all costs and against any foe. The very emotions the memories invoked had driven her at such an early age into the realm of rationality and reason and away from the wonders of her gift and the promises of a certain Togruta so many years ago. She understood now, entirely, that she had misunderstood then. Misunderstood their own reasoning, and the depths of the compassion with which they executed their actions. N’dali reached out suddenly to affirm the partitioned ‘nest’ was up to the task as she removed the unsolvable problem she had imparted on Chams. It was time to nurture her own creation in a way she had never been.
“CZ, let us find out what interest the Empire has in Ciutric, shall we?” She said, returning most of her attention to the med droid that had waited patiently for instruction for the last three and a half seconds.