The Stories of Leslie Schmidt

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Star Trek Chapter 21

Carly and Leia came in. Leia was dressed in yellow coveralls with pink daises on the chest and right thigh. She immediately went to Yoda and put her hand on his shoulder as she looked over at the ship's displays.

"To Alderaan this man will take you," Yoda said to the girl. "I must return to Dagobah."

"I want to stay with you Yoda," she replied.

The creature's eyes softened as he looked at the girl. He had to look up at her. "With me you are not safe," he said. "To kill me, stop the Emperor will not. Safe on Alderaan you will be."

The child wrapped her arms around the green creature and buried her face in his neck. She started to sob.

He looked at Justin. "To Queen Breha of Aldaraan you must deliver her. The antimatter you require she will provide."

Justin studied the scanners. "How far out can those ships see us?"

"In warp they cannot," Yoda replied. "Only electromagnetic sensors they have. Light speed will limit."

"You seem to know a lot about this," Justin replied.

"Theory I know."

"No subspace sensors?"

"What that is I do not know."

Justin reached up and turned off the cloak. Again a strange distortion passed through them.

"What was that?" Yoda asked.

"It's a cloaking device. It bends any radiation around us so we disappear into the background. Uses a lot of energy."

"Works it does even at warp speed?"

"Yeah, especially at warp. You can only sense a ship by its effect on the background radiation. The cloak field has to be larger than the warp field."

Yoda nodded. "Much energy. Then sparing you must be."

Two hours later Yoda and Justin were on the flight deck, the girls had disappeared into the galley and were playing some game on tablets. Occasionally the lesson Yoda was giving on the stellar geography of this region of space was interrupted by bursts of laughter and giggles.

"Friends the children have become," Yoda said after one especially loud outburst.

"Seems so," Justin replied as he smiled back at the noise. "It's wonderful to hear."

"Half-Vulcan daughter how did you become father of?"

"She's not my daughter-I was sent to collect her. She's actually a quarter Vulcan. Her father's a human-vulcan hybred but her mother's human. As for how we got here, well, things haven't worked out as planned."

"Tell me."

Justin spent the next twenty minutes explaining how he happened to end up in an uncharted sector of space with the ten-year-old daughter of one of the most important diplomats in the Federation. As he finished his story the girls appeared at the doorway.

"Justin," Carly said, "can we get something to eat?"

Yoda looked at the girl and their eyes met. The space fell silent. After a few seconds Yoda lowered his head, as did Carly.

"Succeed your mission must," Yoda said. "Greatness both these children are destined for."

Justin looked between Carly and Yoda, Leia was silent.

"Here, an alliance today is formed that will rule the galaxy."

Leia reached over and put her arms around the older girl, pressing her cheek against Carly's elbow.

Both Leia and Yoda were amazed by pizza. At first Yoda objected to the pepperoni until Justin explained that the meat was grown in a bioreactor. After that he scarfed down almost as many pieces as the other three ate combined.

Chapter 22

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