God Save the Queen Book 2: Chapter 9 (Patreon)

Chapter 9: No Good Deed

The holo showed a small freighter listing in high orbit above a yet unnamed planet in the Altor 14 system. Our charts were…abysmal this far out in the rim. Part of me missed standing on the bridge of my last ship and being able to see the arc of space through the viewport.

The rest of me grew more suspicious with each second that passed.

“Have we isolated their comm channel?” I asked.

“Yessa Admiral. Issa be looping the distress call.” My gungan comms officer looked up towards the command dais. “No life signs detected. Butta escape pod be a’missing.”

I nodded. “Chances they abandoned ship?”

Sabé stepped forward at my right. “This class of ship is also notorious for modifications that block scanners.”

“So, it could also be a lovely piece of bait,” I said. “Excellent.” I looked over my shoulder. “I don’t suppose you have any advice for us, Master Jedi?”

Qui-Gon and Anakin stood at the edge of the room, near the doors. The master had paused one foot into the command room, placing a hand on the reinforced arch. “If I had made it this far five years earlier…” he had said.

“Never would have met me, master,” Anakin had replied. It’d drawn a smile that the crew had the good grace not to comment upon.

Officially, master and apprentice were here as observers from the Republic, a courtesy often afforded Jedi. Of course, no one on Naboo would deny Qui-Gon anything.

“I believe you made a salient point earlier, your Majesty,” Qui-Gon said. “While I would normally advise caution, I doubt any trap will be able snap shut around the host assembled here.”

“That is still no reason to engage.” Sabe replied. “The ship could be dangerous to board.”

“Admiral.” Captain Je’mer Ciqella of the Thunderclap stepped forward. “That freighter is small enough to be pushed into the hangar bay and dealt with there. Sweeping the surface of the planet after should be simple enough.”

“Capturing the ship might be more dangerous than a boarding action.”

I tapped a figure against my chin. “We’re clearly not leaving it here.”

“Despite that being the correct choice,” Sabé said in a voice only I could hear.

I reached out, patting her arm once. “If I remember correctly, doctrine indicates a single shuttle with fighter escort ascertain the condition of the vessel before attempting to board. Does anyone have a reason we should deviate from that approach?” There was none. I nodded once more. “I think we can spare a hammerhead or two, then. Just this once.”

“Your Majesty.” Qui-Gon stepped forward. “I would like to accompany the boarding party.”

I raised an eyebrow. “It’s not often that guests are expected to participate in military action.”

The corner of his mouth pulled up into a small smile. “It’s not often guests are Jedi.”

I sighed. It was risky, but no riskier than sending my praetorians. Two Jedi would be invaluable at sniffing out a potential ambush, if the ship was full of pirates hiding beneath the floorboards. “Have someone escort you to the hangar.”

“I’m surprised you aren’t coming along,” he said.

I laughed. “As if anyone on this ship would let me.”

While launching two frigates and a full wing of fighters seemed a bit much, if nothing else, it would be good practice for the crew. The Otoh Gunga held its position as Thunderclap and her sister frigate Lightning Clad pulled alongside the freighter.

“Patch us into their comms channel,” I said.

“Sir.”

I shifted in my seat. In the past, I’d always been on the other side of this situation, but more and more I found myself shifting into a support role. It…I shook my head.

On the holocomm, I allowed the two captains to coordinate another quick sweep of the freighter, which only confirmed our earlier scans.

“Keep us with the boarding party.” I tapped my fingers against the arm rest. “I want them on the holo from the moment they step onto the ship.”

Naboo shuttles looked nothing like the blocky three-winged imperial design of the future. Instead, our shuttle weaved across the distance like a minnow before docking with the freighter. That class had an exterior hatch we could open from the outside.

I watched as a team of five Naboo Praetorians, complete with Beskar-inspired armor, entered the freighter along with our two Jedi.

“Clear signs of hasty departure.” One of them pressed a loose plate with his toe, and it fell to the corrugated floor. “Or maybe just poor maintenance.”

“What do you think they’ll find?” I asked Sabé.

“Hopefully nothing.”

A quick sweep showed a powered-down bridge, where one of the men paused long enough to deactivate the distress beacon. Someone—not me—had been smart enough to send a slicer to take a look at the ship’s files, but just going by the chatter, the encryption was stronger than expected for a vessel of this class. Everything was locked down tight.

I leaned to the side. “Someone get me the specs of that vessel. Is there any chance of a secondary bridge?”

The answer was quick in coming. “Not by the records, Sir. Maybe with some extensive modifications, but…”

“We’d see the wiring.” I switched my comm channel briefly. “Captain Ciqella. Securing the bridge should serve for our purposes.”

It took a minute for the orders to filter down. Chain of command was important, I’d been taught. Commanding humans took a bit more finesse when you didn’t have a master power, but eventually two men took up positions in the bridge, while the Jedi and the other three praetorians continued to sweep the rest of the ship.

“Not exactly the most glamorous first mission for Naboo’s finest,” Sabé said.

“Praetorians were conceived from the ground up for missions like this,” I replied. “Disciplined heavy infantry to go where Mando’ade cannot employ their best advantages.” Jetpacks weren’t useless in boarding action, but I’m sure most would prefer the portable plasma shields and heavier armor of the praetorians.

Never mind that Mandos were definitionally irregular units. If I tried to do more than provide a standard base level of equipment, there might be another coup.

“Ship looks empty, sir.”

“Not surprised.” I leaned forward as the boarding party poked through a half-empty cargo bay.

After no ambush revealed itself, Qui-Gon pulled out his own commlink. “An interesting ship, your majesty.”

“Do you have anything else for us, Master Jinn? Or did the crew flee the ship via escape pod?”

He paused for a moment, turning his head towards the crates. “I think that—”

“Couldn’t have taken the pod,” Anakin said. Qui-Gon and the three praetorians turned to where Ani crouched next to the wall. He ran a hand over the used escape pod’s couplings. “These are rusted into the hull…” He jogged to the other side of the room a second later, checking the couplings on the remaining pod, before nodding.

Everyone else in the cargo bay tensed.

I rested my chin on my fist. “Qui-Gon?”

“Well, if that is the case.” Somehow, he still sounded perfectly at ease, despite a hand resting gently on his saber hilt. “There is a chance, perhaps, that the crew simply hid within the cargo bay to escape from pirates before our presence…caused them to flee.” He hummed. “Were that the case, I am certain all parties would be appreciative to find the presence of such survivors, and no harm would come to them.”

I blinked rapidly.

On the holo, no one moved.

The front of a crate fell open. At once, three blasters were trained on the interior.

“Ahaha!” A man stepped out, hands raised next to his head. “Man, thank the force you found us in time.” His grin was a bit strained. “We were worried those, uh, pirates were gonna come back any second.”

I sighed. “It seems you were correct, Master Jinn.”

“Indeed.” He placed a hand on the nearest blaster, having the man lower it as more people came out of the crate, as well as a few others. Crates that, for some reason, formed a circle around the center of the cargo bay, almost as if someone had picked them in order to surround an intruder.

A dozen other sentients stepped out into the cargo bay, and some of them looked a lot less welcoming than the first man. One girl near the escape pod looked practically ready to bolt. Fortunately, her crewmate quickly relieved her of her blaster.

It seemed that no one wanted to get into a fight with a Jedi, especially not when the rest of our boarding party reached the hangar, bringing the numbers almost even. I quickly muted my comm, turning to Sabé. “Have the fallback team on the shuttle prepare to provide support, if they aren’t already.”

“Shall we attempt to apprehend them?” Sabe asked.

“For what, being idiots?” I shook my head. “The last thing we want is a blaster fight.” She nodded, stepping back to relay my orders to Captains Ciquella and Mor’ous

On the holo, the captain was still babbling about pirates, looking increasingly worried. “Qui-Gon,” I said. “What would you suggest?” Anything to give him a chance to take control of the situation.

“Given the threat of these pirates, I would offer to escort this fine vessel back to a recognized hyperspace lane, before going our separate ways.”

“Escort?” The man waved his hands. “Oh, no no no! I couldn’t trouble you good people any more after coming to our aid. Please. We’ll be fine on our own.”

“I’m certain you will,” I said. “After we return to the Triellus.”

“Ahaha…” His smile faded somewhat. “I think it would be best if we parted ways here, don’t you?”

“Before you reach for that blaster, you should be aware that you are currently flanked on each side by a hammerhead frigate with more than twice your tonnage. Should you somehow take it in your head that you can simply…convince a Jedi master to leave, you will not make it far enough to regret that assumption.”

“Hey now! No need for threats.”

I sighed again. “I am not making threats. Simply appraising you of your situation, before someone does something regrettable.”

Another set of footsteps came from down the hall as another five praetorians, blasters still holstered, made their appearance.

“I don’t care what little game you’re running, captain,” I said. “My only requirement is that you run it somewhere else.”

At that, the man had the temerity to puff himself up. “And who are you to tell a captain what to do on his own ship! I’m a citizen of the Republic, same as you, so why don’t you take your jackboot thugs back to your frigate and let us go about our business.”

I rubbed my face. “It’s true, we’re both citizens of the Republic, but you’ve made two simple mistakes here, captain.”

He planted his hands on his hips, one perilously close to his own blaster. “Enlighten me, your mightiness.”

“The correct term would be your majesty,” I replied. He blinked in surprise. “Because I am not addressing you as a fellow citizen, but admiral Amidala of the Naboo Royal Navy. And I am not on the frigate, I am on my carrier.”

His mouth flapped uselessly.

“So,” I continued. “If we could end this display of—”

The girl near the escape pod screamed and bolted.

“Schel!”

I sat upright in my seat as she all but hurled herself towards the remaining escape pod. She hit Anakin in a wild tackle, and I saw his eyes bulge in surprise as they both tumbled into the pod.

“Qui-Gon—!”

A flailing foot hit the control panel, and the hatch slipped shut.

Over the comm, I heard the hiss thunk of the escape pod jettisoning. The couplings snapped back into the wall less than a heartbeat later.