Anabeth: Spark Of Change

Chapter 21 - Rescue Mission

Anabeth was working on one of the consoles, desperately trying to pin point exactly what damage had been done to the ship which proved to be harder than she thought. Right now, there were just a bunch of flickering lights and warnings of system faliures all over the screens, yet no explaination to what was causing it. And while Zatt and Ganodi were trying to help her figure out what was wrong Ana had Katooni and Petro working on contacting the Republic fleet.

"This is the Crucible, calling the Republic fleet. Come in, please. We need help" Katooni's voice echoed through the room for what felt like the hundreth time. They were expecting their call for help to go unanswered once again, but to everyone's surpirse they finally heard a voice at the other end of the line "This is General Kenobi. We have your transmission".

"The General Kenobi?" Petro asked excitedly. Katooni was already putting on the holographic image of Master Kenobi, as Ana hurried in front of the transmitter. "Obi-Wan!" she smiled in relief as his image appeared. The Younglings, especially Petro, looked at her slightly surpirsed at the fact that she obviously knew the Jedi Master personally. "Ana? Are you all right? What's wrong?" Obi-Wan was slightly surprised and cunfused as to why she had used his first name in front of the Younglings.

"One of your old friends decided to pay us an unexpected visit" Ana said sarcasically. "Judging by your coordinates that friend would have to be..." "Hondo" Ana finished his sentance "We managed to break loose from his ship, but our systems are severly damaged, and he took Ahsoka captive". "And here I thought he had learned his lesson the last time he tried to deal with hostages" Obi-Wan sighed to himself "How bad is the damage?". "Very bad would be the best describtion I can give you right now. Warnings and control lights are flickering everywhere, but I can't figure out what is causing it" Anabeth explained.

"That's not good. Try running a full diagnostic while I send Commander Cody to pick all of you up" the Jedi Master instructed. "What about Ahsoka? We could land on Florrum to eliminate the danger of the ship exploding while we are still on board, and I could go and rescue Ahsoka" Ana suggested. "Ana, with Ahsoka taken captive you are in charge of protecting the Younglings now. I don't want you to go landing on some planet and leave them there all on their own. Run the diagnostic and wait for Cody. We'll deal with Hondo once you are all back safely" Obi-Wan explained to her.

"Alright, we'll wait for Cody". "Good, I'll see you later then. Be safe Ana" the Jedi Master bid her goodbye as he turned off the transmission. "You never told us you were close to Master Kenobi!" Petro's amazed voice filled the room. "That's because I didn't see a need to and none of you asked" Ana explained calmly. "Well, we're asking now. How did you meet him?" Katooni asked excitedly. "He saved my life on Gandri and brought me back to the Temple".

"That's so cool, tell us more" Zatt began to beg. "I'll tell you the whole story once we are safely back with Master Kenobi's fleet. For now, I want all of you to go back to the training room with R2 and Huyang and finish building your lightsabers while I run a shipwide diagnostic. R2, begin reassembling Huyang and keep an eye on the Younglings". Anabeth quickly ushered the children and droids out of the ckockpit, closing the door again as soon as they were in the hallway. With a sigh, she let herslef fall into the pilot seat and started the diagnostic. If only taking care of children were as easy as taking care of a ship was.

Several minutes later, Ana was heading down to the training room as well, ready to break the not very good newS the diagnostic had provided her with to the children. "Perfect timing" Petro greeted her the second the doors slid open.  "For what?" Ana asked a little confused. "We took a vote and came to the conclusion that the majority of us want to go and rescue Ahsoka" the boy explained. "That's not for you to decide. I'm in charge of this mission now" "But..." Petro began, but was cut off by Ana. "No, no buts. Who voted against the idea anyways?" "Katooni did" Zatt said, pointing at her.