On the Wings of Valkyrie

Chapter XLI

When Luna was younger and catching up on what was common sense in the galaxy, she would sometimes start partially falling asleep in class due to staying up late the night before. But it wasn't all sleep. Her eyes would droop closed and her body would start slouching to the side, but the droid's monotone voice would continue to filter through her consciousness. After a certain point, she would be able to see the droid again, though her eyes weren't open.

She'd had dreams—visions really—like that too, watch something happening somewhere else, only to later learn it had actually happened. Luna had grown out of it over time. She had to, her wanderings, her mental witnessing of the present, could create ripples in the Force.

But that didn't mean it didn't just happen sometimes. It was almost instinctive.

Luna could distantly feel the ship humming under her. Hear the engine. Watch the endless blue of lightspeed though she knew her eyes were closed.

She watched as the Delta emerged from lightspeed from a third point of view. It wasn't the first time it had happened. Kaytee had made the first few jumps short, testing to make sure the Lunar Shadow was indeed tracking them. Like the last few times, the Shadow emerged maybe a second later—Luna could see the larger ship floating and gradually slowing in space just behind the Delta. Almost see the invisible wave that rippled through the empty black to her fighter before the dashboard chirped with an incoming comm call. She could sense his presence reaching for her.

Kaytee jumped the Delta back into hyperspace and disconnected the call. Luna watched the Shadow follow a beat behind them.

This time the jump was shorter than several of the previous ones. Kaytee had been varying the length and how long they remained in realspace to get the Sith Lord to let his guard down.

When the fighter re-emerged, the droid hit the reverse thrusters, slowing the speed of the ship as the R2 unit spun it to the side and shot out of the way of where the Shadow would soon be emerging. The Delta barrel rolled before suddenly shooting through an opening that had appeared from next to nowhere which seemed to lead into the inside of a ship, turning in sink with the fighter as it continued moving forward at the same pace while the door began closing. It was Artemis's Illusion, still cloaked. Kaytee was communicating with Ahsoka and the ship's computer to execute the move smoothly—normally Luna would be handling it with the Force's help, but this time Kaytee was on her own. The owl swoop, as they had named it, was supposed to be like an owl swooping in for the kill, silent and stealthy so whatever was unfortunate enough to be the friend of the prey wouldn't even realize their friend had been picked up until they looked to the side and released Mr. Mouse was no longer beside them. It was an emergency maneuver for a situation where the Delta was low on fuel or had been severely damaged. This was the first time they'd be using it for something other than flying practice. In theory, the Lunar Shadow would be unable to pick up Artemis's Illusion while it was cloaked. They were both incredibly advanced, likely the most advanced ships in the galaxy of their type and were about equal in several areas. That said, it was possible, though unlikely, Vader had found a way to uncloak ships since she'd last been with him. Beyond that issue, there was the fact the Illusion could not jump to lightspeed while cloaked. If Ahsoka timed it right, they could uncloak and jump before the Shadow locked onto the ship enough to track them, but if she didn't....

Luna watched the Delta land, locking onto the floor of the cargo hold just as the door closed, blending everything into the backdrop of space before the Shadow's sensors caught on the irregularity. Kaytee powered down the fighter, hurrying to have it simply disappear and lose the tracer before visual scanning caught up with the fact the ship had disappeared into thin air.