Star Wars - The Clone Wars - Secret Missions #4 - Guardians of the Chiss Key

by Ryder Windham

  “But how could anyone have known we would arrive in this area? We didn’t know ourselves until we followed the McGrrrr Gang here.”

  Dooku gestured to the baby. “We’ve never encountered this species. Their sensors may be more advanced than ours and might have anticipated our course from many light-years away.”

  Ambase adjusted the baby’s blanket again and spotted a small, glass cylinder near the baby’s feet. He picked up the cylinder and saw it contained an arrangement of thin, wirelike filaments, then held it out for Dooku’s inspection and said, “This may contain valuable data.”

  Looking around the pod’s interior, Dooku said, “This entire pod is valuable. It’s much more than just a spacecraft, it’s an introduction to an alien civilization, possibly a key to unlocking another realm of space.”

  “I suppose we’ll find out after we bring the baby and pod back to Coruscant.”

  Dooku raised his eyebrows. “Perhaps we should first try to locate the baby’s homeworld and find out why he was placed in this pod. What if his people are searching for him as we speak?”

  “And what if they’re not? As you just said, someone may have sent the baby to us. And as for finding the baby’s origins and identity, our best course of action is to take him and the pod back to the Jedi Temple.”

  Dooku grimaced. “Would you be so determined to bring the baby to the Jedi Temple if he wasn’t Force-sensitive?”

  Ambase let out an exasperated sigh. “We can’t very well abandon him in the pod or leave him with the Malarian Alliance, and we can’t spend forever waiting for someone to claim him, either. He’s a baby, Dooku. He needs help. We need to make sure he’s healthy.”

  The baby made a gurgling sound.

  “And we need to feed him,” Ambase added. “As for raising him as a Jedi, that’s a decision the Jedi Council will have to make.”

  “Then his fate is sealed,” Dooku said ruefully. “He will become a Jedi.”

  Ring-Sol Ambase shook his head. “You confound me, Dooku. You speak as if the baby is condemned.”

  “Everyone should have the liberty to choose their own path. So long as the Jedi path is paved by the Galactic Senate, we’re all condemned.”

  “You forget we have our honor and traditions.”

  “I’m not forgetting anything, Ring-Sol. Consider how well our honor and traditions served the Jedi who died on Galidraan.” Dooku stepped out of the pod. Ambase followed, carrying the baby.

  While another Jedi task force was assigned to help the Malarian Alliance pursue the McGrrrr Gang, Dooku and Ring-Sol Ambase brought the blue-skinned baby boy and his escape pod to the Jedi Temple on the planet Coruscant. At the Jedi Archives, experts analyzed every part of the escape pod as well as the glass cylinder that Ambase had discovered with the boy.

  The escape pod’s propulsion system was so completely alien that the experts had to admit they could neither operate nor replicate the technology. The glass cylinder was indeed a data-storage device that held information about the boy, bur droid cryptographers and translators were mostly mystified by the data. They concluded that the boy’s species called themselves the Chiss, but failed to determine the precise coordinates of Chiss space. Their best guess at the boy’s name was Nuru Kungurama.

  Just as Dooku anticipated, the twelve members of the Jedi Council agreed that Nuru Kungurama should be raised to become a Jedi. They also decided that the Chiss escape pod should be moved to a storage vault in the Jedi Archives.

  Not long after this decision, Dooku stunned the Council when he renounced his commission and left the Jedi Order. He returned to his homeworld, Serenno, where he claimed his birthright as the Count of Serenno and gained immediate access to his wealthy family’s fortune.

  For several years, Count Dooku’s actions and whereabouts were a mystery. Eventually, he reemerged as a political firebrand and rallied thousands of star systems to join his Separatist movement, which threatened to secede from the Senate’s government and divide the Galactic Republic. The civil war that ensued became known as the Clone Wars.

  Eleven years after the discovery of the Chiss escape pod at the edge of Wild Space, Dooku, Ring-Sol Ambase, and Nuru Kungurama would meet again during the Clone Wars.

  Nuru Kungurama said, “Is he still breathing?”

  “Talk to me, Chatterbox!” said Knuckles. “Say something!”

  A burbling noise came from Chatterbox’s mouth, then his head slumped to his left shoulder and he passed out again. Breaker said, “Keep his head and chest elevated.”

  Chatterbox, Knuckles, and Breaker were Republic Army clone troopers and members of breakout Squad. They were in one of the docking bays at Bilbringi Depot, a facility on the largest asteroid in the Bilbringi system, along the hyperspace route known as the Namadii Corridor. The only vessel in the docking bay was the wide thirty-meter-long Suwantek Systems TL-1800 light freighter that had delivered the troopers to the depot, where Chatterbox had been shot in the back by a battle droid. Knuckles and Breaker had removed Chatterbox’s armor so they could apply coagulants and flesh-healing bacta patches to his wounded torso. Breaker had set up the intravenous transfusion kit from an emergency med kit, and both he and Knuckles wore matching bandages across the crooks of their left arms from where they had drawn blood for Chatterbox.

  The troopers’ commander, the young Jedi Nuru Kungurama, knelt beside Chatterbox. Studying the flow regulator on the transfusion set, Nuru said, “How much blood did you two give?”

  “A half liter each,” Breaker said.

  “He’ll need more, and soon.”

  Knuckles looked around. “Where’s Sharp?”

  “He said he heard something moving in the adjoining docking bay,” Nuru said as he pointed to a nearby doorway. “He wanted to make sure it wasn't another battle droid.”

  Knuckles picked up comlink and said, “Sharp? Do you read me? Chatterbox needs your blood.”

  A burst of static came from the comlink, and then Sharp’s voice replied, “I… I read you. Are you sure it’s my turn?”

  “Your turn?” Knuckles said impatiently. “You haven’t given any yet! Get back to the docking bay now!”

  Chatterbox groaned in pain. Knuckles set aside the comlink and returned his attention to his wounded ally.

  “Hey, kid!” a deep voice roared from the nearby freighter. Breaker and Nuru turned to see Gizz, a giant, orange-skinned humanoid and swoop biker whom Nuru had befriended on the planet Vaced. Poking his large head out through the open hatch above the freighter’s boarding ramp, Gizz said, “I found something you gotta see!”

  Nuru was about to respond when he saw Sharp, fully clad in white armor, step through a doorway on the far side of the docking bay. Knuckles saw Sharp, too, and said, “Move it. Sharp!”

  Nuru watched Sharp lake a cautious step forward, Sharp held his blaster rifle so its barrel was aimed at the floor in front of him, but Nuru noticed he had one finger on his rifle’s trigger.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Knuckles said. “Get over here!”

  Nuru sensed something was indeed wrong with Sharp, something… dangerous? Ever since Sharp had told Nuru that he suspected a saboteur might be traveling with Breakout Squad, the Jedi had noticed that Sharp seemed anxious and mistrustful. Rising from Chatterbox’s side, Nuru positioned himself between Sharp and the other troopers. Two lightsabers were clipped to Nuru’s belt, and he held his hand ready to draw and activate one if Sharp opened fire.

  Sharp removed his finger from his rifle’s trigger, lowered his weapon, and moved one hand to touch the armor that covered his stomach. “I don’t feel well. I think I’m… I’m sick.”

  “Sick?” Knuckles said. “What in blazes do you—?”

  “Listen,” Breaker interrupted as he looked to the docking bay’s wide entrance. “Here comes the cruiser!”

  While the other members of Breakout Squad watched the one-hundred-and-fifteen-meter-long Consular-class Republic Cruiser ease its heavily armored nose into the docking bay,
Nuru Kungurama kept his red eyes fixed on Sharp. The danger that Nuru thought he had sensed from Sharp seemed to have completely vanished. A moment later, the cruiser’s landing jets fired, kicking up dust across the deck.

  “Hey, kid!” Gizz repeated. “You really gotta see what I—”

  “Not now, Gizz,” Nuru said. “We’re busy out here.”

  Gizz grumbled as he ducked back into the freighter. Аs the cruiser settled onto the deck. Knuckles said, “Commander, should we say anything about Aristocra and Ring-Sol Ambase?”

  Nuru’s mind reeled. Less than an hour earlier, he and Breakout Squad had had a very unexpected meeting with Aristocra Sev’eere’nuruodo, also known as Veeren, the Chiss ambassador he had met previously on a mission to Chiss space. Veeren kid used a tracking device to follow Nuru to Bilbringi Depot and had told him she believed an unknown enemy was conspiring to conquer the galaxy. She claimed the conspiracy dated back at least eleven years and possibly coincided with the Jedi discovering the Chiss escape pod that carried Nuru as an infant. She had forbidden Nuru from telling the Jedi Council about her suspicions because she also believed spies and assassins could be anywhere, and that Nuru’s life as well as her own were in danger. Unfortunately, as Veeren was leaving Bilbringi Depot in her starship, another ship, a Kuat Corona-class transport, arrived. Veeren’s ship fired lasers at the Corona, and the Corona returned fire. Veeren’s ship exploded.

  Like all Jedi, Nuru had been trained to live remain calm when he used the power of the Force, but he had felt almost overwhelmed by the grief and rage that struck him when he saw Veeren’s ship destroyed. And through the Force, he’d sensed that the Corona was helmed by his own Jedi Master, Ring-Sol Ambase.

  Nuru’s only evidence of his meeting with Veeren was the Chiss tracking device, a small, gray cylinder with a magnetic strip on the side that he’d since secured to his belt. As he removed the device from his belt and tucked it into a pocket, he looked at Breaker. “Say nothing about Veeren or Ambase.”

  “But, Commander, maybe you should tell the Jedi Council about Aristocra. I mean, if everything she said is true—”

  “Then we have every reason not to tell the Council. Not a word about what happened, and that’s an order.”

  “Yes, sir,” Breaker replied, but Nuru could tell that Breaker questioned the order.

  The members of Breakout Squad were not the only ones aware of the Republic Cruiser’s arrival at Bilbringi Depot. Nearly twenty-one kilometers away from the asteroidal station, the silver-haired Jedi Master Ring-Sol Ambase sat in a needle-nosed, ridged-back Kuat Corona-class transport. The transport rested in the shadows of a cluster of asteroids, and Ambase had switched off all the transport’s electronic systems and sensors to prevent other vessels from detecting the transport’s location. He peered through a pair of macrobinoculars that he’d found in a supply box and searched for signs of anу other Republic vessels.

  Ambase’s companion in the Corona was a clone trooper named Sharp, who, like Ambase, was unaware of the fact that another trooper, also named Sharp, was in the company of Breakout Squad.

  Sharp was trying to repair the transport’s communications systems, which had been damaged when he and Ambase fled Count Dooku’s castle during an aerial bombardment. Looking away from a tangle of wires, Sharp said, “General, I don’t think it’s safe for you to remain in the Bilbringi system.”

  “I want to know what Nuru is up to,” Ambase said. “And if we leave now, the Republic Cruiser’s sensors will spot us.”

  “But there may be more Jedi on that cruiser. If what Dooku said is true, then—”

  “Then the Sith Lords are manipulating the Jedi and the Senate, and also turning apprentices against their own Masters. But that’s according to Dooku, and I’m not convinced he was telling the truth. For all we know, Dooku is a Sith Lord.”

  “But, General, he wasn’t lying about Nuru Kungurama seizing Bilbringi Depot. And when that strange spacecraft fired at us from the depot, your Padawan did nothing to stop it.”

  “So it seems,” Ambase said as he lowered the macrobinoculars. “But that spacecraft was similar in design to the escape pod that was carrying Nuru when Dooku and I discovered the boy. I wonder if the spacecraft was another Chiss vessel.”

  “Would that he bad?”

  “Perhaps. The Jedi know little about the Chiss. Nuru’s escape pod contained data and technology we could barely understand.” Ambase glanced at Sharp and said, “Speaking of technology, are you sure you can get the comm to work again?”

  “I think so. I’m more concerned about the rest of the transport. We took quite a beating when we escaped Dooku’s castle.” Recalling how they’d seen the wreckage of Dooku’s solar sailer before they’d fled in the Corona, Sharp said, “I wish we could have confirmed whether Dooku is still alive.”

  “Add that to a number of things I’d like to confirm,” Ambase said. He looked through the macrobinoculars and returned his attention to Bilbringi Depot.

  The Republic cruiser’s hatch hissed open and the Jedi Master Kit Fisto stepped down to the docking bay floor. An amphibious Nautolan, Kit Fisto had green skin and long tentacles that extended from his head and dangled down his back. Like many other Jedi Masters, he had become a general in the Republic Army, which had been created to fight the Separatists and their legions of battle droids.

  A platoon of clone troopers followed Kit Fisto down the cruiser’s hoarding ramp, followed by a team of clone medics. Two medics guided a repulsorlift stretcher into the docking bay,

  “Hurry up with that stretcher!” Knuckles shouted.

  The medics ran over to Knuckles and Breaker, who remained hunkered down beside Chatterbox. “He was shot in the back,” Breaker said. “We gave him two units of blood.”

  Knuckles looked at Sharp, who was walking slowly toward him. Sharp still had one hand placed against the lower half of his chest plate. Knuckles said, “If you’re feeling sick, you should let the medics look at you.”

  Sharp shook his head. “Let them take care of Chatterbox first. I’ll be all right.”

  Nuru watched the medics move Chatterbox onto the stretcher. One medic adjusted the stretcher’s elevation controls, raising it to hover a full meter above the ground while another medic picked up Chatterbox’s helmet. As the medics brought Chatterbox to the cruiser and the just-arrived platoon fanned out across the docking bay, Nuru turned to see Kit Fisto approaching from the cruiser.

  Kit Fisto came to a stop before Nuru. Nuru kept his expression calm as he bowed. “Greetings, Master Fisto.”

  Fisto bowed in return. “Master Yoda told me where to find you. I came as soon as I could. You’re a long way from home, young one. But from what I’ve heard, you’ve also been very busy.”

  Nuru wondered how much Fisto knew about his actions over the past few weeks. His red eyes flicked to the Republic cruiser. “I’m concerned about Chatterbox… the wounded trooper.”

  “The medics will do everything they can,” Kit Fisto said.

  “Of course,” Nuru said solemnly. “Did Master Yoda relay my report about what happened on Vaced?”

  “He said your mission did not go as planned, but that you came to Bilbringi Depot and managed to capture Overseer Umbrag. He said you would give me details.”

  Nuru had almost forgotten about the Skakoan Overseer Umbrag of the Techno Union, who was allied with the Separatists. Nuru shook his head. “Forgive me, Master. I’m not sure where to begin.”

  “I’m aware that you left The Jedi Temple to follow Ring-Sol Ambase to Kynachi, and how you led a group of clone troopers to liberate Kynachi from Overseer Umbrag’s Separatist occupation. I also know that Ambase went missing on Kynachi and that Master Yoda reluctantly authorized you to command your improvised unit, Breakout Squad, on two covert missions.” Fisto looked at the three clone troopers who stood at attention nearby and added, “Breakout Squad?”

  Nuru said. “Master Fisto, meet Breaker, Knuckles, and Sharp.”

  Fisto nodded at t
he troopers. “I commend you for your actions at Kynachi.”

  Breaker said, “Thank you. General.”

  Fisto looked at Nuru. “What happened on Vaced, and what brought you to Bilbringi?”

  Choosing his words carefully, Nuru replied, “Breakout Squad and I were returning to Coruscant in a freighter owned by Lalo Gunn, a pilot we met on Kynachi, when we received a transmission from Master Yoda and Chancellor Palpatine. They instructed us to change course for Vaced so we could rendezvous with Commissioner Langu Sommilor, a representative from Kynachi, and escort him to Coruscant for a special meeting with the Senate. The chancellor said Republic Intelligence had reason to believe the Techno Union might try to stop the commissioner from reaching Coruscant. We took precautions, but just after the commissioner’s freighter landed, an assassin killed Sommilor and his two pilots. The assassin wore Mandalorian armor.

  “But the Mandalorians ended their warrior ways years ago ” Fisto said. “Theirs is a peaceful world. Perhaps the assassin was an imposter?”

  “All I know is he was an expert sniper and martial artist. He might have killed me if a swoop biker named Gizz hadn’t joined the fight. Lalo Gunn blasted the assassin’s ship out of the sky over Vaced.”

  “You’re certain the assassin is dead?”

  “We saw his ship explode. He couldn’t have survived. However, Cleaver found—”

  “Who is Cleaver?”

  “Forgive me. Master. Cleaver is a droid commando that we refurbished with parts from Lalo Gunn’s former droid copilot. Cleaver is very loyal and works with us. On Vaced, he found a utility belt. We suspected the assassin either dropped the belt or deliberately left it behind. One of the belt’s pouches held an imagecaster and the only thing on it was a map of the Bilbringi system. I wanted to investigate, and we left Vaced in Commissioner Sommilor’s ship.” Nuru pointed to the thirty-meter-long Suwantek Systems freighter.