| Dwindling Galaxy | |
|---|---|
| Star Wars Expedition | |
| Author | C3PO the Dragon Slayer |
| Co-author | Not applicable, possibly Jedi Master 76 in helping to create this section of a fanon universe |
| Installment | 2 |
| Date of publication | November 11, 2006 |
| Prequel | Star Wars Expedition I: Journey through Time |
| Sequel | Star Wars Expedition III: Ruins of the Past |
Star Wars Expedition II: Dwindling Galaxy is the second novella in a series of stories that continue the Star Wars saga into a new level.
Plot summary[]
The Galaxy is on the brink of war once again. The alienated Kiliks, a race of fearsome insects, have initiated a third expansion, putting the minds of many individuals at risk of unwilling joining. Meanwhile, more experts indicate the trend of the decline of known resources. Grebleips, an Ette hoping to become a Whill, is caught in between both predicaments, each rapidly expanding into a galactic problem.
Dramatis Personae[]
(forthcoming)
Full text[]
Chapter 1: Black Hole[]
THE GALACTIC Deep Core was a region that could not support life on its own. Space-time distorted from the immense gravity of several black holes, densely-packed stars, and clouds of dust. Electromagnetic radiation spewed at near-lightspeed from massive stars and supergiant black holes. Elements beyond conventional scales were created from immense stellar and gravitational pressure, most of them quickly disintegrating and emitting harmful radioactive rays. Charged particles raced through the cosmic soup of stars and dust, blowing away atmospheres of potential gas giants and corrupting the orbits of planets. Collisions were frequent.
Naturally, such an environment was the home of the most industrious population in the Galaxy.
The Deep Core Energizers were a multi-billionaire company that extracted immense amounts of storable and usable energy from the most active location in the known universe. The cosmos were lively in these parts; hardly the still silence that most sentients connect to the vastness of space. The liveliness could easily provide energy for more than one company that exported petajoule upon petajoule of valuable energy. Apart from the industrial workers, sealed off from the harsh region by expensive protective suits and top-grade starships, the only beings that ventured to the Deep Core were scientists and tourists, seeking the awe that active black holes could easily provide. It was in this place that a test was to be made on a black hole that was the very heart of the galaxy, weighing thousands more than an average star. The scientific test was instituded by a race of unclothed, small aliens known as Ettes, a species ill-known among the Galaxy because of their general solitude and peacefulness.
Grebleips XII, an Ette of many prestigious professions, was invited by the Green Planet sect of the Deep Core scientific establishment to witness a scientific investigation on the most powerful monster known to the Galaxy: the central black hole known simply by Omega-X. Grebleips was more occupied with his pacifism in regards to the war between the Chiss and the Kiliks, but reluctantly agreed to the unveiling of a fact of the material force that bound the Galaxy together, apart from the more philosophical and mysterious Force.
The test was simple enough. Due to incalculable radiation and incalculable distortion from incalculable sources, the nature of Omega-X was equally incalculabe. A mystery that had plagued science for millennia (supposedly discovered centuries ago, but forgotten after the times of the first Galactic Empire and the Namorian Empire) could be unveiled by firing a torpedo. The purpose of the experiment was to decide whether Omega-X was a rotating black hole, and whether it could be used for extracting energy and perhaps venturing to alternate universes, that is, if the theories of many scientists over many generations were correct.
Grebleips, however, being a Jedi, was more adept in knowledge of the Force than the force of gravity, and really didn't have a clue what the experiment was all about. He turned to the Yuuzhan Vong scientist, a being whom had a close affiliation with the Jedi. Named Zhan-Zhock, the Yuuzhan Vong was less experienced with black holes than genetics, though Yuuzhan Vong technology did excessively use miniature singularities. This was why the most active scientist in the Newfound Regions was now invited along with Grebleips to witness the historical test. "So what is the procedure of this experiment?" asked Grebleips casually.
"Didn't the Captain tell you?" responded Zhan-Zhock. "It is really a simple experiment. We are aboard a heavily modified bomber equipped to fire a projectile at a strict angle near the black hole. We are hoping that Omega-X is a spinning black hole, so its singularity could be an infinitely dense two-dimensional ring, rather than an infinitely dense zero-dimensional point. All we have to do is, when the projectile loops around the black hole's event horizon, measure the speed at which it is rotating. If its speed of axis rotation picks up dramatically, that means it has successfully passed through an ergosphere of a black hole, which is a sort of event horizon that objects can still exit, only extracting angular momentum from the rapidly spinning black hole. If this is the case, then we could have a reliable energy source that could compensate for the increasing prices of fuel and power."
Grebleips nodded, but still did not understand the concept of event horizons and singularities as fluently as he would have liked.
After puzzling over what the terminology could mean, Captain Rotas entered the observer's cabin. Several Holonet reporters recorded his image and others jabbed notes on their datapads. The Ithorian captain made an intense throatily noise for attention. "We will conduct the first trial of the experiment now," boomed the captain. The scientists who knew what was going on apprehensively sat attentively.
The captain reverted back to the cockpit, and then directed everyone's attention to the left viewports over the intercom. Outside, everything was blurred except for an ominous black circle, which encompassed a large portion of the view.
Captain Rotas boasted about the inertial compensators of the ship, bragging that this was the only vessel that could be in such proximity to a black hole such as Omega-X. Grebleips's attention was temporarily directed elsewhere, though. A strong disturbance in the Force, present as an escalating danger sense, was elevating itself in the Ette's awareness. Something was going to threaten not only the experiment, but their lives.
Meditating, calling on the Force for greater insight and ideas for dealing with the impending danger, Grebleips shut himself off from the rest of the outside environment. It seemed that black holes even had an effect on the Living Force, suggesting that the monsters truly were an accurate metaphor of death in the universe. Grebleips, for the first time in a while, strained to sense, which directly contradicted what Yoda's holocron had taught him. He was near-blind for a moment, to all the mayhem caused by the black hole outside and to the countdown inside, and to the potential threat.
Then he felt a presence outside their vehicle, and very near.
He glanced out the right viewport, opposite of the side of the craft that everyone else was observing the black hole at. Zhan-Zhock, most mindful of Grebleips's actions, was the only one to notice the Ette's behavior. Both, looking out the transparisteel reinforced by the greatest built inertial compensator, were the first to catch sight of an incoming ship, hardly larger than a starfighter.
Meanwhile, the torpedo had been launched, and it sailed at an alarming increase of speed toward the black hole. It looped around the black hole, blurred for a significant portion of the time and for a greater time concealed by Omega-X's event horizon. Then the object appeared in close proximity to the craft to the right of the ominous black circle, appearing to spin rapidly by a lighthouse effect. Omega-X, according to the first trial, was a spinning black hole.
The starfighter, which all but Grebleips and his friend was oblivious to, approached their ship, named Graviton. The small fighter seemed to have equally remarkable resistance to the intense gravity well as the Graviton, meaning that either the captain was lying about their inertial compensator or was unaware that other models with such resilience existed.
As it approached, the small craft extended three laser cannons, and deployed its weapons menacingly. So it's a warship, Grebleips thought. This was the danger that Grebleips sensed.
The ship fired.
The Graviton rocked under the bomboardment, but was not severely damaged. Any ship that could even dream to get this close to any black hole would have to be very well ray-shielded. But if the shields fell to constant siege, the radiation from the black hole would rip the ship apart. Grebleips sensed panic and chaos aboard the Graviton, and wondered desperately what to do. He called for the Force to guide him.
Two Bith acting as security officers rushed to Grebleips. "Are you an Ette?" one panted. The inquiry was rather impolite, but the times were too desperate for formality.
"Yes, I am," said Grebleips. "The only one on this ship, I beleive."
"Good. The captain said that someone told him that a Jedi was onboard, from the Green Planet. The captain wants a Jedi miracle. You'd better get to the cockpit."
Grebleips was not in the mood for Jedi miracles, but reluctantly complied, bounding in the strange stride of the Ettes. Passing several portals and winding around a turbolift that led to the second floor of the passenger cabin, Grebleips found himself in the cockpit of the cruiser.
Captain Rotas squealed with delight at the arrival of the Jedi, thinking that he could snap his fingers and make the small ship firing upon them explode or something. Grebleips had never used violence. As a lone Jedi, trained by a holocron of Yoda and a member of a peaceful people, he was one of few Jedi who believed that "aggressive negotiations" were not a last resort, but always having a kindlier alternative. Those few Jedi tended to end up dead, but usually made quite a difference in the minds of the "enemy."
Rotas spoke with the authoritive voice that usually emitted from mouths of captains, but was certainly tinted with desperation. "In case you haven't noticed, there's someone that obviously doesn't like us out there."
"I was the first to notice, actually," responded Grebleips. His phase of avoiding saying anything that remotely seemed to portray him as a proud creature was over, as long as anything he said about himself was relevant and true.
"Well? You're a Jedi, right? You're the only one onboard who can fight that whatever-that-guy-out-of-the-right-viewport-is," wailed Captain Rotas.
"This ship doesn't have weapons, so I can't fight it from here, and I certainly cannot survive exposure to a vacuum, especially this close to a black hole," said Grebleips sourly.
"Then DO SOMETHING!" ordered the captain. His irritation and obvious inexperience with actual life-threatening situations was pulsing from his veins, and he was very frustrated that he could not do anything to save his life.
"What were the results of the experiment?" said Grebleips in an alarmingly casual manner.
Rotas judged the comment as irrelevant. "That doesn't matter now, just somehow get rid of her!"
"Is our ship fast enough to outrun that fighter?" asked Grebleips.
"No, the black hole's gravity keeps us from exceeding too great a speed away from it. And the mass shadow makes a hyperspace jump impossible."
"Is it possible that we could use the slingshot effect with the black hole and dart away at the near-light velocity that the black hole puts on all other matter that goes so close?" said Grebleips.
"No, the ergosphere would make the ship spin around too fast for the inertial compensator to handle. We'd be ripped to shreds," said Rotas impatiently.
"So Omega-X is a rotating black hole?" asked Grebleips.
"Yes," said the captain sternly.
"Then let's go to the next dimension," said the Ette.
Silence struck the cockpit like a meteor. The only audible sounds were the muffled panic of the holoreporters and scientists in the passenger cabins and the static strain of the shields every time they were hit by incoming fire. Concievably, it was the only way to get the ship away from the enemy ship, but that meant putting themselves at just the amount of risk that they were in currently. Plus it was like running like a coward, something nobody expected a Jedi to suggest.
"Are you serious?" asked a frightened copilot.
"I don't know much about the physics of black holes, but from what Zhan-Zhock told me a while back, a rotating singularity meant that a lot of matter can pass through the black hole and come out in another dimension. That could either mean hyperspace, or a temporary hiding place, and somewhere that'll make more headlines than the current mission," said Grebleips, almost as if he were an expert.
The ship rocked violently as the ray shields took further damage. Whoever was controlling that starfighter was quite motivated to destroy the Graviton. In Rotas's mind, there was no ship in the known universe better equipped for the job than theirs for entering Omega-X, but the unsolvable calculations of black holes were so mysterious that the nature of a black hole was even more evasive than the nature of the Force. Entering such a monster was unthinkable.
Then again, staying there to be shredded into space dust was equally unthinkable.
And a Jedi suggested going past the event horizon in the first place.
The captain ordered a direct trajectory into the gaping mouth of Omega-X.
Chapter 2: Reversion[]
Sibelius Suan was a talented Jedi Knight, whose rationality and decisiveness created a strong reputation for the Tikiclatt. A non-humanoid crablike alien, she was sometimes a bit pushy, though never acted without weighing options. Not to say that she was hesitant; the Jedi was a fast thinker and could arrive at a conclusion in time only one with Jedi reflexes could. Thickly armored all over her body, two eyes stood upon her head atop stalks, and a wide mouth parted the hemispheres of her large head. Two arms ending in monstrous claws had small, fingerlike digits for fine workmanship, while the muscular massive claws could grasp, lift, or hit objects with remarkable strength. Such a body was typical of a Tikiclatt, and could be housed comfortably by the newly developed InCore Manned Fighters.
Another war had sprung in the Galaxy, between the Chiss and the Kiliks, one a near-Human blue-skinned race, the other a hive-minded insectoid alien species that was inapplicable and ill-understanding of the governments of the Galaxy. The Inner Core, considered the most affluent and powerful among any of the region-states that stood as individual nations, allied with the Chiss alarmingly quickly, considering the Kiliks were "invading" hardly a week before the bill declaring war was passed by the Inner Core Congress. No other region or sector had yet joined the Chiss's cause in the crusade on the illegally immigrating insects.
It was the current task of the InCore Jedi Order to make otherwise.
Notishaw, the Chief Executive of the Inner Core region, had devised a plan to rally as many systems as possible to the cause. The plan, however, required retrieving any Chiss politician from the cut off sector in the Newfound Regions, which the rest of the Galaxy had lost communications with just over a week after the first landing of Kiliks.
It was also their task to prove that manned starfighter battles could still work in a conflict such as this. A century earlier, the Inner Core was the first region to boast the technology of remote fighters that could be controlled by pilots thousands of light-years from the danger zone. One by one, each region-state adapted the technology for themselves, until warfare was a hologame rather than a man-to-man struggle.
Now all that had changed.
The InCore Jedi Order had made a costly mistake on their first attempt at sending a strike force. The Kiliks did not need hyperwave communications due to their telepathy, and could therefore make it impossible to communicate via any hyperwave frequency with no risk involved. The InCore Jedi Order was humiliated as their remote-piloted starfighters were cut off from the transmitters in the Core, and in doing so defeated a force of sixty starfighters in a single move. The only solution to this strategy was to send Jedi Knights in person to the battlefield, using the Battle Meld for communication.
So it was that the carrier Adherence entered the Musafa system, a Chiss-inhabited territory that had been the site of the Jedi's first failure. The carrier carried over four hundred Jedi starfighters, and a crew of nearly two thousand. Only one hundred Jedi were to actually pilot the starfighters.
It had been two weeks of rigorous training, spending a large chunk of the Coruscanti 24-hour day performing various exercises that prepared for actual presence at a battlefield, rather than a mere simulation. The Corellian Sector also joined the Inner Core's alliance with the Chiss, and they too had a carrier on the opposite side of the system, which was to rendez-vous with the Inner Core's forces at an asteroid that was known to have little Kilik activity, for warming up and creating a base.
Sibelius's platoon was really the best of the wing. She and the four other pilots were the last to question orders, though they each thought independently. Sibelius had taught her wingmates to justify any contradiction to instructions, view input into planning and strategy as welcome (despite the views of the commanders), and yet not delay or interfere with the overall plan that the superior laid out. Sibel tried to be the role model for leading a space combat mission, though her power was only over four other pilots, and limited to the instructions the squadron leader insisted.
Sibelius, a mature female Tikiclatt with decisive pragmatism and ambition, Ckehil, a Chandra-Fan with a talent of immediate apprehension through the Force, and Modadm, a quiet, though intelligent Rodian, were all undercelebrated hotshots, who were really the best fighter pilots in the Inner Core. The two other pilots in their platoon were a Bothan and a Bith, both still early Padawans and seldom offering input of strategic value. Both, however, were skilled at a ship's controls. Though none of them scored the highest number of kills, swerved the tightest maneuver, played the most missions, won the most battles, or preserve the most fighters, they acted what close analysts described as "invincible" in their determination, cooperation, and well-rounded and -developed skills.
They didn't take pride in knowing this, however. They considered themselves the best platoon in the wing, including the Command Toon, but they only drew satisfaction and confidence from this, and used it not for brag but for shaping the group mind into a determined olympian that stops at nothing to achieve what it must do. Sibelius had taught them all of this; had trained each of her wingmates to constitute the proper attitudes and effort into becoming the best space pilots she could teach.
That training was about to be tested.
All but one of her wingmates had "survived" the last Kilik encounter up to the final disruption of communications that made the usefulness of remote fighters equal zero. This time, they had to control the vehicles from inside the vehicles, unable to reliably access the fighters on hologame-esque consoles safely on the other side of the Galaxy. This time, they were'nt just playing a game that threatened only a couple million credits invested by Jedi funds and taxpayer's money. This time, authentic lives were in danger.
Upon the Commander's command, each of the fighters, which seemed to be scaled-up versions of the Remote Fighters used futily during the previous battle, no longer adhered to the carrier Adherence and shot off towards an asteroid that spies reported to have a sizable Kilik settlement.
"All right guys, this is it," yelled Sibelius over the comm unit. Her voice was the last to be heard over the channels. "No use of the communications channels unless absolutely needed. From now on, we stick to the Battle Meld and let our transcievers spew rays that simulate the communications of the Remote Fighters."
Copy that Sibel heard from each of her wingmates through the Force.
The asteroid began to appear as a hovering speck in the vastness of space, but it steadily became clearer over the visual sensors that it was their destination. A four-hundred kilometer monster, the asteroid was sometimes considered a dwarf planet by some standards, but its location within an asteroid belt in the Mustafa system convinced most scientists otherwise. After a minute, a tiny speck was seen to be orbiting the celestial rock. This was confirmed to be a massive Kilik Nest Ship, a fifteen-kilometer ovaloid flagship that was capable of transporting and housing an entire nest of the vast Kilik insect colonies. The Nest Ships seen by spies and in the first battle also were proven to have powerful weapons systems, and carrying sometimes hundreds of Dartships, which could combat starfighters and suicidedly crash on larger targets, their shape and momentum dealing incalculable damage.
The Nest Ship was their target, almost as a display of might, though more for the Inner Core Jedi than the Kiliks. They wanted to confirm that putting lives at risk again for the sake of liberating systems from oppression and warfare in general was still plausible, at least in this conflict. The mining setup believed to be held there by at least one Kilik nest was also a good place to conquer for resources until they were sure they could continue on towards the planet that the Chiss inhabited.
After about two more minutes, they were in range. Sibel could hear the stealth engines of the wing activate in hearing the neutrino engines being shut off. Neutrino engines were so much cheaper and non-polutant, but Tibanna stealth combustors were equally efficient and well-suited for battles.
Silently, each of the fighters pulled up and aimed at the defensive turrets of the Nest Ship once they reached point-blank range. Volley after volley of laser bolts set on a sub-maximum level were slammed into the towers and torpedo launchers of the Nest Ship, creating dozens of dazzling explosions. More than half the turrets on the northern end of the Nest Ship were neutralized on the first run, thanks to each of the fighters having been designated a series of towers to fire upon. The Nest Ship, unprotected by battle-grade ray shields, could not withstand a sizable seige for too long without top-notch defenses.
The comm channel's white noise changed pitch subtly as the Nest Ship tried to deactivate the starfighters by jamming communications.
No use, bugs, thought Sibel. She launched a series of powerful blasts into a docking bay of the Nest Ship. Most of her shots missed their mark, but two hit a structural weak point within the gaping opening, causing nearly a quarter of the open bay to collapse, smashing the Dartships parked within. Her wingmates followed, and the squadron leader instructed her to destroy the northwest subreactor in order to destroy the ship quickly. Through the Force, she was reassured that twenty-five fighters will be instructed to cover her platoon.
Her wingmates had heard the echoes through the Force, and followed her in a roundabout to get a second strike at the docking bay, which could be supposedly blasted deep enough to destroy a surface reactor and force the central power system to be critically exposed.
Ckehil was the first to open fire, followed by the two Padawans in the lowest rank. Sibelius set her own lasers on the highest rational power and poured destructive energy into the the Nest Ship. The hole became deeper and deeper every time a laser bolt collided with the far wall at the end of the docking bay. Essentially, they were explosively drilling into the ship to expose a few critical functions.
On the next run, some Kiliks had managed to board their Dartships and were heading out of the docking bay she had been designated. More than two dozen outdated starfighters were right between Sibel's squadron and the surface reactor they were aiming for.
And it looked like the Dartships were particularly angry at her platoon for doing so much damage to their capital ship already.
Sibelius sent a small wave of urgency to the flanks of InCore Jedi Fighters that were assigned to protecting her platoon from enemy fire.
A large head-on clash of fighter-to-fighter combat erupted among the two small forces. None of the Jedi Fighters were destroyed, though Sibel saw at least three get hit dangerously. Dartships were unshielded and thrown together, making them easy to kill. The InCore Jedi Fighters, on the other hand, were miracles of practically artistic engineering. They were equipped with state-of-the-art layered shielding systems, neutrino and Tibanna-X stealth engines, and a hyperwave power output. InCore Fighters were capable of being extremely deadly even in small numbers, but Dartships, knowing each pilot was controlled by the collective mind, could act as one even better than Jedi pilots using the Battle Meld.
Two Dartships were heading toward Sibelius's starfighter. She brought her cannons onto a safer level for shooting at smaller targets, and aimed. Ckehil, anticipating the leader's concern before it even existed, had shot both Dartships square in the chemical rockets with a single laser bolt that drilled through the first target and ricocheted to the second.
In the meantime, Dartships met InCore Jedi Fighters across the perimeter of the massive Nest Ship. A stellar battle arose, mostly one-sided in the Jedi's favor. The Kiliks hadn't expected the need to use military defenses, knowing that jamming the communications seemed to work last time. But the subtle pitch in the white noise over the comm system was still present, so the Jedi couldn't call in their robotic reinforcements yet.
Sibelius directed Modadm through the Battle Meld to fire a projectile into the crater that now took the place of the docking bay. The Rodian complied, firing a powerful projectile into the hole. After a blinding explosion, it was confirmed that the surface reactor was no longer intact. In order to keep a large fraction of the ship from combusting and inflicting unsustainable damage to the rest of the Nest Ship, the Kiliks were forced to route power directly from the main reactor. That meant an exhaust port, leading directly to the main reactor, would have to open, and therein lay the key to destroying the entire ship swiftly.
Before she could even think it, Sibelius noted two InCore Jedi Fighters on her tactical display launch their own solid projectiles into the port that had just opened. The Nest Ship was doomed.
Chapter 3: Still Black Hole[]
The Captain knew the impossibility of surviving a trip to the "next dimension," as Grebleips reffered. But arguing with a Jedi was one thing he could not think of. So the ship raced straight ahead, making sure the intense gravity only helped their journey and did not stress the inertial compensators more than need be.
A black hole would usually "spaghettify" any object entering its gaping sphere, stretching it into comic proportions. Though the calculations were debated because of the unstable overall environment of the Deep Core, Omega-X should have been big enough to not elongate a starship with the help of inertial compensators.
Then there was the problem with the photon sphere. Black holes don't only inhale light, some light orbits the black hole circularly, and therefore creates an invisible sphere of solid light. When the ship crossed paths with this, it would easily be exposed to much more raw energy than it encountered against the mercenary or bounty hunter or assassin or whatever the starfighter was. Hopefully, the ship would bypass the photon sphere fast enough to not cause absolute damage to the powerful ray shields of the Graviton.
Time dilation would be another problem, but possibly a blessing. The fabric of space-time would stretch so much in the black hole's immense gravity that everything would slow down. If Omega-X were a conventional black hole, that wasn't rotating extremely fast, it would take forever to reach the singularity. But because Omega-X had a spinning singularity, at least judged by the single trial of a somewhat dubious experiment, they wouldn't, at least shouldn't, all die of age before they get to the next universe.
If only this expedition were cautiously planned to venture into the black hole! This wasn't a scientific journey; it was a chase. Though the variables wouldn't be changed too much in such a venture if it were planned for months by leading scientists, anything could go wrong in the seconds of setup for this particular stunt.
Omega-X might not be a rotating black hole.
Grebleips watched as the black hole's opaquely black circle seemed to shrink, though constantly shrinking so that the circle always occupied the same amount of space in the cockpit viewport. The captain had announced their daring maneuver, which had caused a great deal of panic, but the ship's emergency restraints tethered them to their seats before they could start a mutiny. A plate-like retraction slid down the viewport to block the harmful rays that the ship would be exposed to as the ship constantly accelerated, just above the amount the inertial compensators could stand.
Grebleips felt empty, without the Force. Though he could still sense his surrounding, manipulate objects with his thoughts, he felt as if his Force connection was weaker, somehow the Force was subsiding into the black hole. It frightened him to think that if they reached the next dimension, he might not have the Force to guide him.
Just as the large plate completely covered the viewport, the entire ship was illuminated to the harmful extreme. Solid light that encircled Omega-X was so intense that lots of visible light penetrated the forty-centimeter-thick hull plate that separated the command crew from the harsh environment of the vacuum, magnified by the impossible gravity of the black hole. The ray shields somehow were still strong enough to resist the higher-frequency radiation that could damage tissue, but they were not designed to block visible light. Everyone shut their eyes, but it made little difference. The light that could seep significant portions through a several-ton durasteel rayshielded plate could easily penetrate the thin eyelids of the species that had such body parts.