Here's my first chapter in The Lonely Planet featuring the crew of The Honest Liar:
Enjoy!
The heavily modified pirate ship The Honest Liar hurtled through the pulsating blue and white swirling tunnels of hyperspace. It had become a habit of captain Angkar Vass’ to watch the speed-of-light travel from the viewport set into the wall of his quarters. He took comfort in these brief moments between tasks in which he could reflect. The hum of the hyperdrive and the sublight engines working in harmony added a certain buoyancy to his thoughts as they turned from deals long brokered to his crew and the cargo they now carried. A man of principles, Captain Vass had few regrets as it was his motto “to always have a plan”. He had lived a life of strategies and tactical planning during the Clone Wars. He had been forced to leave that life when the Republic fell and out of its ashes the Empire rose—devouring entire sections of the galaxy as it spread like a fascist virus infecting system after system.
Captain Vass was jarred from his reminiscing by the Liar’s proximity claxons blaring at full alert. The blue and white vortex had faded into the stretched white lines of stars and planets. “We have at least an hour left of hyperspace travel.” He found himself saying to his reflection in the viewport. It still took a few seconds for his capacities as a captain of a smuggler vessel to finally unfreeze themselves and kick in. He ran his fingers through his thinning black hair a few times, his breathing calming and his heart rate slowing to an even rhythm. He picked up and slung on his belt and holsters as he walked the 70 feet to his cabin door. Keying the release sequence he emerged into the red emergency lighting—the ships sirens screaming. “What? What?!” Captain Vass demanded from the alarms as if they’d respond to him. Where was everyone? Where was his crew? How did this happen? He barely heard his wrist-com crackle—his mind racing. “Uh, Captain?” It was Twen Humb the ship’s cook and a Sullustan that Vass had known for many cycles. “Yes, Twen? What’s going on? Why’d we drop the big L?” “You better get up here cap!” Twen’s voice was strained with bewilderment and wonder—not a good sign. Vass knew there was something wrong. He took off at a dead run for the bridge of his ship. “Captain Vass?” It was the gravelly voice of the Liar’s chief engineering officer. “What’ve you got Goyal?” He more than half expected their being dumped from hyperspace to be a systems mechanical glitch. “Well, that’s the thing, Captain, everything down here is running smoothly—a little too smoothly if you ask me…” the strain in his voice was barely detectible but it was there. “What do you mean Goyal?” “By all indications we should still be in hyperspace—everything down here is pushing a full tilt to green—I even had Vaxx run a full diagnostic when the alarms first sounded. All scans came up negative.” Angkar had reached the main turbolifts to the upper decks and keyed for the bridge. “So the drop wasn’t mechanical. Could be the navcomp again.” “No, sir. It was the fail safes.” The fail safes. Long range sensors most long range crafts were fitted with to detect a vessel’s proximity to solid masses during hyperspace flight so as not to, “fly through a star or bounce too close to a supernova.” The fail safe sensors would drop a ship out of lightspeed and cut the engines before impacting on a solid mass.
Exiting the turbolift Vass jogged up the ramp to the bridge. “Nice of you to join us Cap.” It was Raesh the Liar’s pilot. “Anyone want to tell me what’s going on?” Vass said as he took his place in his Captain’s chair. “It’s some kind of mist—fouled the ship’s sensors. Fooled the proximity scanners.” “Space mist?” Asked Vass extremely skeptical. “Like an ion trail? Or dust and debris floating from the destruction of a starship?” “I’m getting an energy reading from it.” Said Sadus, the Nikto freedom fighter, manning the scanners. “Push the scan out and give me the widest field you can from this range. “Aye, captain.” “Raesh, take us in a bit closer, I want to get a better look.” The Honest Liar lumbered forward towards the swirling unknown. As they moved closer they saw that the mist was charged with forks of yellow lightning—it crackled as its long tendrils ebbed into the blackness of space and dissipated into vapor. “Looks hostile…” said the beautiful cyborg Shee-Ahn, the ship’s tactician and medical officer. “Like storm clouds on Ryloth during the sandstorm seasons.”
The Honest Liar edged towards the clouds of ionized gas and continued moving towards the swirling vapors. “Ease up Raesh. I just want to take a look.” “It’s not me captain, I cut the engines. It’s the mists—drawing us in.” “Cut all drives--full-reverse. Lock in the auxiliary power! We’re not being pulled into some nebula of death!” “I’ve already tried the back-thrust out. It’s the electricity in the mist it’s interfering with the sublight engines!” “Then cut power to all engines and give me a full shield push—360! I want the Liar locked up tight.” “Shields up and holding at 97%.” Said Raesh. This is going to get bumpy!” The roiling mists enveloped the Kleeque-class transport ship. Yellow fingers of electricity danced over the shielded hull and crackled against the translucent blue of the ship’s shields. “Status on the shields, Raesh!” “Holding at 87% Captain!” Captain Vass gripped the armrests of his chair—his fingernails making crescents in the material. He was putting his and the lives of his crew in jeopardy by allowing them to be pulled into this impending vortex, but he was powerless to do anything by watch and wait. After many long minutes that seemed to stretch on for hours, the mist grew all at once thicker and heavier, and then began rapidly to dissipate. They were through the ionized vapor and into a an empty area. The clouds of vapor created a cocooning effect around them. Before them there hung a small rusty yellow colored moon. The Honest Liar continued to drift towards the sphere, like a child’s toy pulled on an invisible string…
