Amir woke up in the morning, threw off his covers, and rubbed his forehead, trying to recall the dream he'd had the night before.
It had been an oppressive dream—flashes of red lightsabers, starships, familiar white armor, blaster fire, a curved dual-bladed lightsaber, and BD-4.
Amir exhaled. "Was that a vision?"
He closed his eyes, then reached over and picked up the lightsaber lying by the bed. The worn weapon had never been activated. It had no visible switch. Jay had studied it for days. Sain had even tried to take it apart, but short of destroying it entirely, there was no way to disassemble it.
"A weapon from the war..." Amir muttered. He got ready and headed to the warehouse.
Sain and Pier were out buying parts. Jay, bored, was at the front of the shop sitting on a high stool, legs swinging.
"Morning, Amir," Jay greeted him brightly.
"Morning." Amir ate the food Pier had prepared, fixed two broken appliances, and then moved to the workshop in the back.
He took off his wristband. It wasn't just a band—it was more like a silver-white bracer, covering his forearm and wrist, packed with customized tools and devices.
He detached the spider-drone and set it to recharge, then pulled out a deflector shield generator he'd "acquired" from the academy. The bracer included a power emitter that, when gripped correctly, could discharge a focused current to disable a target's nervous system.
On the inner side was a compact screen—only a small part was for comms. Most of it controlled the bracer's various functions.
Amir grabbed the control module from the ship and began installing it into the bracer's interface.
This mission to the Imperial prison ship came with serious risks. If he screwed up, there'd be one less prisoner to worry about.
There were still a bunch of high-end parts stored aboard Fronis's ship, and Amir planned to make full use of them.
Just then, a new comm alert popped up.
He tapped it.
Onscreen appeared a figure clad entirely in white armor. The helmet was removed, revealing black hair and a familiar, kind face—Kayen.
"In a few days, I'm off on my first assignment," Kayen said. "Can't share the details, but it's safe—just observing, recording some logistics."
"Graduation's in two months. A general's giving the ceremony speech. They say he might handpick some top cadets to serve under him. Maybe I'll get lucky."
"Honestly, I hope I'm sent to the Outer Rim. It's a mess out there—pirates, bounty hunters, planets falling apart. Might even get to pilot something real out there. Haha."
"Hope your tinkering's going well."
Amir stared at the projection of his only true friend from the academy and sighed before shutting off the message.
He thought back to his dream. Those white-armored troopers… could one of them have been Kayen? Was Kayen's mission the same prison transport? Or was it just a coincidence?
He tried to dig for clues, but the more he thought about it, the murkier it all became.
"Dreams can be misleading. I shouldn't rely on unverified foresight," he reminded himself, setting the thoughts aside.
Once he finished the bracer mods, Sain returned—BD-4 in tow, gleaming after a full spa: oil bath, carbon scrub, part replacements. The droid sparkled, bouncing up onto Amir's workbench with renewed energy.
"Let's go. Time to upgrade the ship," Amir said, scooping BD-4 up.
"Upgrade the ship? Count me in, Amir! Jay told me all about it, and if I just—"
"No." Amir cut Sain off immediately. With Sain's kind of "ideas," the ship might not survive the day.
Amir grabbed his toolbox and left on the speeder Cola, BD-4 riding with him. Jay, now free from shop duty, hopped on his new speeder and tailed behind.
Soon, they arrived at the rented hangar. Amir received a short message from Sainir:"You'd better bring BD-4."
Amir sat near the ship's engine, rereading the message.
He wants BD-4 onboard... Considering Sainir knows the Rebellion is after BD-4's holologs, that likely means there are Rebel agents on the prison ship. The Rebellion's still small; the Empire wouldn't treat it as a major threat—interrogations might be sloppy. That would make things easier.
With that logic, Amir grinned and started fine-tuning the engines.
"One day I'll get a sublight acceleration booster installed... hitting lightspeed without hyperspace? That must be insane."
Before he knew it, morning had come again.
Amir climbed into the cockpit bright and early, activated the optical camouflage, and disabled all system signals except propulsion.
Cola slipped off Coruscant's surface like a ghost.
Amir had never truly left Coruscant's orbit before. Now, as he broke through the atmosphere and looked down on the planet below, the sunlight cast a golden radiance across the globe. The city-world glistened, flaunting its beauty and grandeur to the void.
"See you around, Coruscant," Amir whispered.
He locked the flight path, pulled down the lever—and with a brief pause, the ship shot forward, streaking into hyperspace as a silver blur.
Colors streamed around him—streaks of starlight twisting into the kaleidoscopic swirl of hyperspace. Moments later, Cola dropped out of warp. Coruscant was gone.
In its place stood a massive ochre planet: Edwin.
A wasteland of a world, forgotten and uninhabitable. No one lingered here. Desert plateaus, jagged ridges, volcanoes dotting the surface. The air was thin and laced with toxins. The weather was erratic. The temperatures extreme.
Amir pierced through its fragile atmosphere and landed atop a high ridge.
He checked over the device Sainir had given him: a spatial disruptor. One burst of it would generate powerful interference, tearing open nearby hyperspace lanes and forcing passing ships to drop into realspace.
It was the key to this entire operation.
Without it, he'd have to intercept the prison ship right after launch, before it jumped—a nearly impossible task with the Empire's heavy surveillance.
By laying a trap along its projected course, he could force the ship to drop out, attach his freighter, board with plenty of time, rescue his target, have a short conversation with another… and leave.
Easy.