Barak plugged in their hyperspace coordinates and hit the switch designed to initiate light speed.
At that precise moment, the freighter suddenly jerked, as though an angry Rancor had caught it in its grasp.
“Dammit, Barak, what are you doing?”, Dana yelled.
“Nothing, everything’s working fine, but we can’t move.”, the Trandoshan rasped
Sjani pulled her cloak around her and watched in silence as her mother and companion scoured the various displays on the freighter.
“I can’t see anything. We’re just stuck.” Dana admitted, the gut-wrenching feeling of helplessness not hidden from her voice.
“Sjani, what have I told you about wandering around when we leave a planet?”
“But Ma, I was cold and didn’t want to be on my own”, Sjani whined.
“Fine, I’m coming”.
Dana hauled herself out of the Captain’s chair and gripped the sides of the craft until she reached her daughter. Sweeping her into her arms, she tottered ungainly back, and balanced her daughter on her lap.
“What’s happening Ma?”, Sjani nervously asked.
After a momentary pause, it was the Trandoshan who replied.
“We’ve been caught in a tractor beam. But I can’t see which ship it is which has caught us. Much dishonour has fallen on us.”
“Points are no good if we don’t have our lives Barak, I need to know if it’s friendly or not”, Dana demanded
“I’m working on it. Right now, if you want to be useful, you need to get our cargo secured and hidden”.
The Spice. Dana leapt to her feet, strapped Sjani into the chair and stumbled out of the cockpit to the back of the freighter. Sjani pulled out her blaster and toyed with it, safety on. Barak made a few adjustments to stabilise the position of the ship while it was being pulled into the unknown ship.
“What’s going to happen to us?”, the young girl asked.
“If friendly, we hide stuff and ride it through”, Barak started, more hesitantly than he intended.
Sjani just nodded, indicating a clear …and if it’s not?
Barak took a deep breath. “If foe, then we fight and escape. You need blaster”.
They could feel the light inside dimming as the shadow of the unknown assailant grew nearer. Dana came back through, looking harassed.
“I think I’ve managed to re-tag everything. All the crates now have scrambled security codes. I’ll crack the codes again once we’re free”.
Barak nodded. “Well done, Captain. I’ve stabilised our horizontal position. Now we wait”.
More From Sjani Arcturus
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About the Author
I have been playing MMOs for about ten years and began writing guides to The Lord of the Rings Online in 2017. I've only been creating content about Final Fantasy XIV since 2022, but I am glad for the mix. My current games include LOTRO, FFXIV and the occasional Palia session too.
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