FORESIGHT and SCOPE: BOOK TWO

C H A P T E R F I F T Y-T W O

Pop!

"Oh," I covered my mouth with my fingers to hide my amused smile. "Spoke too soon." I glanced down at the circlet of fabric in my open palm, running my thumb over the embroidered Republic emblem. The corner of my mouth twitched as I briefly reminesced over the very establishment that this insignia stood for...a Grand Republic we clones fought so hard, but never actually witnessed. It was possibly one of the greatest ironies in a clone's life...

"Gah!" Wrecker's whine broke my trance. "I'm bored, I'm hot, and I'm starving!"

"I told you to preserve your rations." Hunter said.

"Well, I—" Wrecker stammered. "I got hungry!" He whacked at the speeder, and a cylinder part toppled off, only fueling his frustration. Throwing his arms up in defeat, he plopped back in the dirt with a thump. "Ugh, we're wasting our time. This skiff's a heap of junk."

"Yes, but if we can complete these few repairs," Tech said. "it will a slightly operational heap of junk. The energy cells have just enough power to get us to the town."

"Power?" Omega repeated, then gasped and jumped to her feet. "We forgot about Gonky! He's still on the Marauder."

"I'm afraid since the thief disabled the ship's transponder, we will not be able to locate him." Tech sighed bluntly.

"Not the ship." Omega clarified, she knelt between the spectacled clone and Hunter, showing the former the datapad in her hands. "I mean, we can track Gonky."

"Oh, ingenious idea." Tech's brows raised with a pursed lips. "Try doing a trace on his binary reference code."

"On it!" Omega scrambled over to the communications tower and plugged in the electronic device, sending out a signal. Her face beamed with confidence.

Wrecker chuckled, "Don't get your hopes up, Kid."

"If the ship is still on this planet," I slipped on my headband, securing it over my hairline, and crossed my arms with pride. "then it'll work." The chances of that, though, were slim...but I have to hand it to Half-Pint and her acute brain. Why didn't I think of that?

"Did it work, Tech?" I joined his side to inspect his repairs.

"Indeed." he replied, handing me the spanner. I accepted the tool and moved in, brushing against his arm. "I-I would suggest we delay a trial run until we have primed every system."

"Of course." I smirked over my shoulder. Working side by side for what seemed like an hour, the two of us at last finished the reconstruction of the speeder bike. The sweltering sun had almost hit its peak. Sweat dripped down my temples and my neck collar. My skin-tight top suctioned to my body. My stomach growled in protest to my negligence; eventually, I surrendered and broke off a chunk of my last fiber roll, almost swallowed it whole, and packed the other half for later. Patting the rickety handle of the skiff, I was going to offer to test it out for a spin, when Omega suddenly gasped with excitement behind us.

"I think I found Gonky!" She dashed over to me and Tech and showed us. "His signal is 100 kilometers east."

Wrecker was dumbfounded. "You...What? You found him?!"

"Then that means the Marauder are still on this planet!" I grinned. "No time for a test run! Everyone, hop on! We are getting our ship back."

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It was all about distribution of weight. Hunter settled in place on the rear of the speeder, facing the opposite direction than the rest of us. Wrecker hunkered down in the center with Omega tucked between him and Tech, her arms wrapping around the latter's waist. With yours truly as the designated driver—Tech protested, of course, but there was no way I was going to be crammed behind him with his bulky pack shoved in my face the entire 100 kilometers—I revved up the sputtering engines—purring like a Lothal cat hacking up its last meal—and smirked over my shoulder.

"Alright, everyone, hang on. I guarantee this is not going to be a smooth ride. If we lose someone along the way, well," I didn't finish my statement—to avoid any manifestation in the Force, naturally. As I initiated the takeoff sequence, Tech tentatively placed his hands on my stomach. "Since when were you a duchess, Tick?" I quipped. In a flash and an eyeroll, I grasped his wrists and yanked them forward. His chest collided with my spine as I knotted his arms firmly around my torso. He cleared his throat behind me as he readjusted himself, holding me properly this time.

When I released the brake, the skiff kicked forward and accelerated at an unexpected rate, severely skipping across the flat, desert plain instantly. Even after I secured him to me, Tech nearly capsized, almost taking Omega with him. His strong, armored forearms heaved up under my ribcage, briefly, but sharply cutting off my breath intake. Once the inertia recovered, he loosened his hold to its original state, his gloved hands lightly resting on my hipbones. Every once in awhile, when our mode of transportation skittered and grinded against the petrified terrain, his fingers jolted and pinched my cinched waist for balance.

The bike's engine was exerting all its power just to hover the carrier a few inches every twenty feet. The exhaust backfired at intervals of about the same distance, jerking and rearing the speeder forward with each concerning Pop! Black smoke coughed out pathetically. Wind plowed into my face as I focused on my weak attempts to keep the speeder leveled, but the controls quivered under my clenched fingers; the resonation travelled up my forearms and caused my bent elbows to jitter erratically. From my sporadic driving, it wouldn't be a shock if Hunter suddenly disappeared from the tailend...

"A-a-a little h-h-help, T-tick." My voice flucuated with the irregular bouncing of the speeder. Leaning forward into my spine, Tech removed his hands from my waist and slapped them over my knuckles, straightening the vehicle forward and holding it steady. Occasionally, my temple involutarily knocked into the side of his helmet since he needed to look ahead while we operated the commute together, passing through the plain and into the gorge between the towering plateaus.

A hundred kilometers was not easy to navigate. By the time we reached our destination, night had thoroughly fallen. There was no moon visible to luminate the sky, so for the last ten miles, we raced in pitch-black darkness. Eventually, we caught sight of a cluster of artificial lights in the distance. Relief was an understatement of what emitted from my soul as I maneuvered around odd rock formations that barricaded the terminal with a sense of desperate haste. No one complained about my reckless steering—then again, they may have been either too exhausted from the tiresome excursion or too wary to confront me after I handled said excursion.

Parking behind some large boulders, we accessed what appeared to be another spaceport, only this one seemed to thrive in the worst possible conditions. The white-yellow lights we'd seen before resembled a normal, harmless town, but they bordered a massive sinkhole with the circumference of a ventilation shaft found on Coruscant—one that led to the Underworld—that glowed blood-red from within. The stench wafting from it reeked of burning fossil fuels, its pungence stung my eyes and nose. Unfortunately, my gut was convinced that was where our ship was being confiscated...

"Gonky's signal is pinging from down there." Tech tapped on his datapad, and pointed to the west side of the vent. "I'm reading minimal life-forms in his proximity, but an unknown number in the subterranean level."

"Why am I not surprised there are actual people inside the path to Hell?" I muttered to myself. The uneasiness in my stomach contorted.

"This place looks worse than the abandoned spaceport." Wrecker grumbled.

"I agree." I said.

"We'll do a split approach." Hunter decided. "Stay alert."

"Take this, Fern." Tech handed me his other datapad. "Gonky's signal is also beckoning on there." Sure enough, a small red dot blinked on the grid screen. I playfully pulled on Omega's shoulder. "I'll take the genius here. Come on, Half-Pint, we call the southside approach."

"Tech and I will take east." Hunter nodded. "Wrecker, you'll come from the north. Let's move out."