About two hours later, after everyone had a quick rest, a shower, and something to eat, we met in the common area of the ship, sitting down, talking about our destination.
"So, am I going to be finally filled in?" Adrian asked, smiling, holding a cup of something hot and sipping it with a satisfied look, slowly walking to his seat. "On our... What was it? Graveyard?"
"Indeed, a graveyard it is..." Sareh repeated, smiling, as we took our seats.
"A graveyard," he echoed, looking amused. "That's… not just poetic, yes?"
[Statement: Stop repeating the word, and start explaining. Meatbag mating dances are the most annoying rituals known to my kind.]
"I agree." Vila groaned, flicking her lekku behind herself. "Flirt somewhere else."
"It's an accurate name," Sareh said without acknowledging their words, stretching her arms over her head, acting like this was just another trip to the archives to listen to C-3PO's ramblings. "There was a massive battle there, between Republic and Sith forces, back in the Great Hyperspace War, the one that ended the Golden Age of the Sith Empire. This battle happened when a Sith fleet was cut off and separated from the main armada, and then consequently destroyed."
"And...?" Adrian asked, because there had to be more than that.
"Nothing." Sareh looked at him with a widening smile, then she continued, "The fleet refused to surrender. They were ripped out mid-transfer, the first recorded Interdiction-style attack. Anyway, the battle happened in the darkness of space, between systems, in intermediary space. The result was that they all died. But, the way they fought, to the last ship, it also meant that the Republic fleet that exterminated them suffered just as great losses too, almost making it seem like the two sides killed each other."
"Sith being a Sith... what a surprise," Vila muttered, shaking her head.
"It was the logical option," Adrian spoke up, steepling his fingers around his cup, thinking about it. "If the Republic pulls back, the fleet would have been able to escape and rejoin the main armada. They had to be kept there and then be removed, so... I can see why it worked out as it is. What are we expecting to find there?"
"More clues," Sareh answered simply, "It happened a long, long time ago, so the coordinates were lost, found, then lost again. I don't know what remains there at the moment, but... It is a starting point, better than any of my other clues."
"Well, we have twenty-eight, I mean, by now twenty-six hours," Adrian shrugged, glancing at the readouts on his personal datapad, "Plenty of time for relaxing. Speaking of relaxing, the rules are simple on my ship," he continued, acting like he owned the place and... well... he did.... "This vessel's systems are not to be tampered with, as we agreed on." He said, glancing at HK, "Your access ports are limited to your cabins and here, in the common room. You can input the coordinates we will visit on the bridge, just like before, and your navigation write-ups are segregated and wiped each time you log in and out. Good?"
[Query: And if an emergency requires droid-level reaction speed?]
"You stay put," Adrian said, beaming at him, but that grin was anything but honest or welcoming. "My ship can handle it; she is more modern than you."
[Statement: That is an emergency already in itself.]
"HK," I rubbed my forehead, waving a hand at him to stop, "Please... This is going to be a long trip..." I muttered.
"You're still welcome to leave when we reach a port," My brother said pleasantly, looking at all of us, "Or if you are in a hurry," He glanced at HK, "You can leave back out the airlock. I won't stop you."
"HK has a mouth on him," I said evenly. "That's all, Adrian... and thank you."
...
.....
...
Twenty-eight hours sounded short... but of course, they weren't, especially not when you were trapped in a ship that wasn't yours, surrounded by people who didn't like you, as in the two Death Troopers, who, of course, didn't trust us, and only tolerated us because that was their orders.
Whenever we left the cabin to get some snacks or just stretch, the two were always there. Without their armors, they still looked almost identical, twins perhaps... Humans, big, muscular, and cold, honestly speaking, I think HK had more life in him, and he at least could speak! These two were mutes.
As for my brother, I couldn't really tell what he was thinking about. He was hard to read because he was direct and honest, but also gave me the feeling that he would only do what he felt was right, even if that meant betraying us. But I can't just go off on that alone... Can I? Anyway, at least our rooms were not bunks stacked in a corridor. It was a clean, small room, with metallic walls and a bare floor, pretty much telling us it hadn't been lived in at all before, most likely only completed before we took the ship out to this voyage. The bed was narrow enough to force Vila to press into my side if she wanted to sleep, which I suspected was not an accident in the layout, and she didn't complain anyway... She loved using me as her mattress.
As for Sareh, she had been assigned the room across ours, getting it all for herself while HK… HK had been placed in what could only be described as a storage room with a charging port and a bolted-down bench. I'd expected him to complain... But no, he didn't, which almost worried me more. When I checked on him briefly, he was sitting perfectly still, like a paperweight, his photoreceptors dimmed to a resting glow, showing that he was conserving energy. Of course, when I got there, the light became stronger as he looked up at me.
[Statement: I am contemplating methods to murder this ship's computer. Don't worry, I will only do it after we are done with the mission.]
"Don't," I told him quietly.
[Clarification: I am contemplating, not executing. Yet.]
"Still don't."
[Observation: You are no fun.]
"I don't trust your idea of fun," I said, and shut the door, leaving him there. Haaah... this will be a long journey!
...
....
...
About twelve hours later, we found ourselves back on the bridge, because Sareh called on us all. She stood by one of the wall-mounted access points, her hands folded behind her back, her posture mirroring Adrian's in a way that was either intentional mimicry or a deeply ingrained survival habit... Maybe both, but the girl was a chameleon, knowing how to handle anyone she interacted with and building rapport with them. She not only matched the tone her 'partners' would find most acceptable, but she also knew what kind of posture she had to present to make the feeling even stronger.
"Something's wrong," she said in a deep, thinking voice.
"Apparently..." Adrian didn't look away from the hyperspace readouts as he mumbled. "I just don't see anything."
"I don't like the sound of that." Vila moaned, hurrying her steps to reach them.
"The ship is being watched," Sareh exclaimed.
"Huh?" Vila's eyes narrowed instantly, looking at me once. "By who?"
"I don't know," Sareh admitted, shrugging her shoulders, "But I can feel it through the Force."
"Kael?" Vila asked, while I closed my eyes and let my senses stretch outwards.
The Hyperspace-lane we were in felt a bit weird... I mean, it was... alive yet not, my senses being bounced between the countless worlds we were passing by, traversing the Galaxy. You can't get a feel inside a lane, you are going too fast, so... Ah?! Suddenly, my eyes snapped open.
"We're being pinged," I said, exhaling.
"Pinged?" Adrian finally turned to me from his ship's readouts, "How? I see nothing on the systems. We didn't broadcast, and nobody should..."
"I didn't say we broadcast anything," I cut in. "I said we are being pinged."
"Yes, but for that, there needs to be a message, and that won't get through to us while we are in Hyperspace," Adrian argued, and then he leaned forward, fingers moving over his command console. The ship responded immediately, letting out a series of quiet internal beeps, and the lights on the bridge shifted slightly. "No, we're running silent," He exhaled after a moment. "As silent as a ship can be in Hyperspace. No way anyone or anything could have picked up on us.
"Does it feel like them?" Vila leaned closer to me, her voice low.
"I don't know," I admitted. "But it... It felt weird. A mix between machine and the Force, very much... unnatural."
"That's good..." Sareh nodded as if that confirmed something she already suspected, but needed my input to be sure. "The fact that we are being tracked shows that we're going to the right place."
"That was not comforting." Adrian muttered, "This Force... is a..." He looked at us, withholding a grimace, "It's nasty business. I can see now why Father hates both sides."
...
....
...
When the countdown finally dropped under an hour, we gathered again. Stepping onto the bridge. I quickly noticed that Sareh stood near the viewport, her expression calm, but her fingers tapped a slow rhythm against her robe, showing the first sign that she was either nervous or excited... Hm... I could sense both emotions swirling in her.
"Can we discern anything to be there, before we drop out of Hyperspace?" Sareh asked while Vila and HK came in after me.
"No." Adrian answered, sitting in his captain's chair, "We won't know the situation before arriving. Why? Another Force-tingling? I thought it was better than our sensors."
"No," she replied, "It isn't. It is more akin to premonition than actually reading things. But if one thing I learned is when people don't clean up wreckage… others come to harvest it."
"Please," That made Vila snort softly. "You are not a Master to sound so ethereal. We're going to a scrapyard that has probably been picked through so many times... That not even an unscrewed bolt can be picked up anymore."
"I wouldn't be that sure about that," Sareh smiled again, her body relaxing, "It is outside of normal stops, because there is nothing there to stop for. It's a fleet, lost in space and time."
"We will see soon, so stop arguing, girls." Adrian spoke up, not that soon after, "We are coming out... Get to your seats!"
Just after we put our butts down the seats, I watched as the blue Hyperspace collapsed and all the stars snapped back into place... and the first thing I caught through the viewport made my skin prickle.
Vhalor Reach was full of dead ships. More than I have imagined!
It was an entire region of space that was clogged with broken hulls, massive, ancient dreadnoughts that were split open like ribs that had something burst out of them, cruisers that looked as if they were folded in on themselves. Then, between them, I saw unknown frigates drifting in a very slow, everlasting rotation, following the direction of the force that hit them the last time before blowing them into pieces. Entire sections of plating hung loose from most of the wrecks, and where it was still there, it was held together only by twisted beams, melting the metal to the ship's skeleton. Wherever I looked, the wreckage field stretched far out in every direction... There were... hundreds of ships, maybe... maybe even a thousand.
Then, finally, I noticed something that was even more peculiar. Drifting between them, well, amongst the biggest wrecks towards our north, there were thin, almost invisible threads, stretching like a spiderweb. Against the blackness of space, it was mostly invisible, only catching the light coming off our ship, making those theders glint once in a while, like some blinking stars.
"Adrian," I said slowly, pointing towards them.
"Hm?" He followed my gaze, noticing, and his eyebrows raised upwards, "That's new," he muttered.
[Statement: Those are anchoring cables. Someone stabilized that particular wreckage to stop it from spinning.]
"I hate this," Vila said.
"So do I," I replied, "But it will help us search for clues."
"Well then," Adrian smiled, tapping on the console built into his chair, "We will examine that first. Let me show you what our newest sensors can do~!"