Date: Mon, 21 Aug 1995 12:56:31 -0400
From: Jmedinadk@aol.com
Subject: DFCH1PT5.TXT for dir/STORIES
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This is a work of fan fiction.  But if you like what you read,
gimme a buzz at jmedinadk@aol.com and pass the text around.

This continues my account of the first adventure of my Second
Edition Star Wars RPG campaign, featuring characters created by
players Frank Shaw, Marc Ford, Holly Jones, Alan Polcen, and my
wife Jamie Lawson.

                         STAR WARS:  DARK FALL
               Chapter 1--Stars Crossed At Ensakura, Part 5
                        Written by Joseph Medina


     The Imperial officer stepped through the thick haze in the
cantina with a scowl and watering eyes, making his way to the ring
of stormtroopers around Redbeard, the Ewok, and the purple-plated
astromech droid.

     Dorian and Telia watched from their table, glancing back and
forth between each other and the floor show provided by their
comrades.  Telia kept looking to her mentor for guidance, a signal
to suggest a course of action, and did a double-take when she
realized that Dorian had begun to do the same.

     Trying not to cough on the smoke, the Imperial officer turned
to Redbeard and the reptilian humanoid.  "Right, what's the
trouble."

     The Ewok bounced up and down, chattering, "Fuzzballs want
sticky fruit of the wormhead!"

     He reached a furry paw out toward the object of his desire,
provoking a heart-stopping growl from the reptilian that held onto
it.  Redbeard captured the Ewok in a half-nelson and pulled him off
the ground.  As clamping his hand over the squirming Ewok's mouth,
he beamed a toothy grin at the Imperials.  "Ain't no trouble."

     Artoo blatted out an electronic raspberry at him.

     Telia shook her head as she often did whenever Redbeard was up
to something, then turned to Dorian, waiting for her mentor to
answer an unspoken question.  After getting a distracted look and
a nod from Dorian, she squeezed through the white wall of
stormtroopers and walked straight into the fray.

     She looked into the Imperial officer's eyes, daintily raising
her pale fingers.  "There's nothing going on here."

     "There's...."  The Imperial seemed to fall into a brief
reverie, then snapped out of it to glare at her.  "There most
certainly _is_ something going on, young lady.  Offhand, I'd call
it disturbing the peace!"

     She shook her head, frustrated with herself.  Dorian made it
look so easy.

     With a fistful of Redbeard's sleeve, Telia yanked him toward
her and nearly off his feet.  "Had too much again, didn't ya, bro?"

     As the Imperials looked on, Redbeard looked at her a moment
and smiled before letting his body sway.

     "I'm sorry, sir," she said to the Imperial officer.  "But he
and his pet over there do stuff like this every few weeks.  I've
been looking all over--"

     "Yes, yes, yes, all right!" the Imperial blurted out.  He
waved his soldiers to the door, disturbing the cantina's layers of
smoke.  As they marched out, he removed the matching cap of his
black uniform and ran his fingers through his grey hair.  "Sober
him up and keep him off the streets!  I have enough trouble on my
beat."

     Slapping his cap back onto his head, the Imperial officer
followed his men out the door.  As they left, Telia began to feel
in his wake the movements in the Force that Dorian mentioned,
strong tides rolling through and away from her, toward the doorway. 
She let out a heavy sigh of relief and fought off the chill
crawling up her spine.

     When Dorian's hand appeared at her elbow, she gasped despite
herself.  "I felt it!  Strong waves in the Force."

     "We have to move quickly," Dorian said.  She gestured to
Redbeard and the Ewok to join them.  "Someone went out the back
door when the stormtroopers came in, a girl not much older than
you.  And she had the same Force imprint."

     "_Two_ people?" Telia said.

     Redbeard covered his eyes and shook his head, as he often did
whenever he heard them talk about the Force.  He'd begun to get the
annoying impression that they knew what they were talking about. 
"So we gotta go after them too?  We haven't found th' damn pilot
yet!"

     Telia's astromech 'droid squealed angrily at him.

     Dorian raised her hand to command silence.  "This can't be
coincidence.  Somehow they're all connected.  Someone will have to
track down that woman while the rest of us look for our missing
'friend.'  Stay in touch by comlink.  We'll meet up at the ship in
five hours."

     "I can do the first bit," Telia said.  "So where'd she go?"

     Dorian glanced to one side.  "I think she's going southeast."

     "Great," Redbeard mumbled.

     "The bad side of town?"  Telia pursed her lips when Redbeard
nodded and rolled his eyes skyward.  "Typical."

                                      *          *          *

     Telia left the cantina alone, literally going out the back
door into the streets as the sun nudged itself to the
mountaintops on the horizon.  Force powers or no, she could tell
that her quarry was leading them both into perilous territory.
The old stone buildings that framed the streets became more
dilapidated as she went on, bleached into bland hues by decades
of sun and pock-marked from blaster fights.  Eyes stared at her
from shaded alleys.  In time, even the sight of patrolling
stormtroopers became more and more rare.  She drew the folds of
her somber robes about herself and the hood of her cloak over her
head, then forged onward.  Shadows swelled across her dusty path.

     As two waning crescent moons loomed overhead, Telia caught
up with the woman.  As soon as she was in sight, Telia ducked
behind a corner to hide.  It was definitely her quarry, a girl
about her age who was too well dressed for such a dismal
neighborhood.  Crisp colors, pressed slacks, and long cloaks
didn't cut it around here.

     Before she could step around the corner, Telia heard
footsteps.  She looked around, unable to see anything beyond the
outlines of crumbling, barely erect houses.  She knew she heard
something and, reaching out with other senses, picked out the
footsteps of several humanoids.  Definitely bipeds, creatures
whose movements had a one-two, one-two beat.  She parted her
folds of her robes just enough to reach her lightsaber, then
moved deeper into darkness.

     "Hey, cutie."

     Snickering from dark corners.

     "Yeah, you, cutie."

     "Hey, you lost, sweet stuff?"

     Telia marked the sources of each voice, counting out meters
in her head as she walked onward.

     The woman ahead of her had the sense to look around and
response with defiance, but not enough sense to act like she had
a blaster.  "Get lost, twerp."

     "Hear that?  She says she lost!"

     "She needs some tour guides."

     A blaster's safety clicked.  "A real tour to hell, kiddies."

     A knife hissed as it left its scabbard.

     Telia raised her hand and cleared her throat with more
effort than she really needed.  "You'd better leave.  Now."

     As the other woman spun around and stepped backward, a beam
of moonlight fell across her face.  She gaped all around,
apparently seeing nothing, obviously feeling the moment teeter-
totter on a knife edge.

     She expected more stupid, menacing quips.  Instead there was
a stunned silence, then a challenge.  "We can _take_ you, damn
rich--"

     Telia parted her robes, letting her lightsaber slip into her
hands as she spoke again.  The emerald-colored energy blade cut
into the night with a hiss and an ominous, growling hum.  "Go."

     Again silence, soon broken by the sounds of shoes scuffing
themselves against loose grit, running, and raised male voices. 
Blasters rang out and spat laserbolts in Telia's direction. 
Without thinking, she swung her lightsaber into a tight arc in
front of herself.  As she pulled the hilt of the upturned weapon
to her stomach, the bolts splashed against the weaving blade,
springing off into the darkness and lighting the street with
flashes of exploding blaster fire.  Briefly she could see the
shadows of arms and fingers spread wide as screams rang out.

     She extinguished her lightsaber and ran for the other end of
the street in hopes of catching up with the other woman.  The
deep, telltale _thwap-thwap_ of another cloak flapping in the
chilled night air rumbled closeby, ahead of her.

     "You know any place nearby?" Telia called out to her.

     "Yeah!"

     "Good!  If they have friends, they might come after us!"

     Listening to her rapid footfalls, Telia followed her through
a crumbling maze of alleys to a side door.  They climbed a
twisting, creaking staircase for many meters until reaching a
door.  The other woman rolled a key, an obsolete data disk inside
a handle like a glorified pulley, through a computerized lock and
led them into a studio apartment with little more than a cot and
a view of the street below.

     Telia waited for her guest to speak, then resigned herself
to breaking the ice.  "You're not from this part of town, are
you?"

     "What's it to you?"  She kept an eye on Telia, hitting a
sparking light switch as she spoke.  At least she learned from
her mistakes, Telia thought.

     "It's okay, I'm a friend."

     "I heard that one."

     Telia threw back her hood.  "Look, we don't have all night. 
What were you doing at that cantina earlier?"

     The woman raised a dark eyebrow at her question.  "Looking
for something."  It was a challenge instead of a straight answer.

     "Shield generator parts?  Concussion missiles?"  Telia
watched her fluster, holding her breath, looking around the room
like a caged animal.  "Maybe we can help each other.  I'm looking
for a pilot named Kyle."

     "You...know him?"

     "Well...he saved my life yesterday," she offered.

     Her guest relaxed and smiled.  "You're with the R--"

     "Yeah, yeah, where is _Kyle_?"

     "I don't know.  He sent me a message by comlink and said he
made planetfall somewhere."

     "Just great.  Uh...."  Telia tapped her forehead, trying to
lodge some ideas from the back of her mind.  "Listen, you'd
better come with me.  Some friends have a ship at the spaceport. 
One more thing, you ever been around anything really unusual
lately?  You know, something you haven't seen before."

     "Tons, at the Imperial governor's mansion."

     Telia nearly dropped her lightsaber.  "Ex-squeeze me?"

     "He likes to show off his collection of rare artifacts from
outside the Outer Rim, especially to my father."

     "So who's your father, a freaking Grand Moff?"

     The woman squirmed as she reached for the smoking light
switch again.  "Captain Miguelus.  The Imperial captain who
showed at the cantina.  That's why I left.  I didn't want him to
see me!"

     As the lights went out, Telia shook her head and raised a
hand over her eyes.  "Typical."


                    CONTINUED IN NEXT FILE