The Warlord Zsinj was absolutely furious. He got on the comm system and began barking orders to the bridge crew, “NO! Catch them! Kill them! Bring them back NOW!!!” The SSD Iron Fist stirred to follow orders. Two laser blasts hit the Relay 2, and several hundred rushed into oblivion after the transport entered hyperspace.

On board TRN Relay 2, Emon Kaarin was just settling in at the helm. He could relax a little now that he had safely escaped once again. Beside him, Uopal Masch started to say something, but changed it as a loud crash was heard behind them.

“Who are you?” he asked as a chubby man in an expensive suit that was at least three sizes too small for him stepped out of a side compartment.

The man first responded by pulling out two blaster pistols and leveling one at each of them. It was obvious that he was trying as hard as he could to cover his fear as he slowly spoke, “I am a Certified Imperial Food Inspector, and I want to know who’s stealing my ship.” Masch quickly pulled out his own weapon, and then the other Inspector started firing. He was a horrible shot, and each blast he fired collided with the control panels instead of the two men. After firing each of his pistols twice, the man keeled over in response to one shot from Uopal.

Emon glanced over and asked, “You kill him?”

“Nah, it was still set on stun,” Masch replied, and then asked, “What do you want to do with him?”

“Uh why don’t we…” he paused to stare at the little wisps of smoke rising out of the controls where the lasers blasts had hit earlier. “Uh oh.”

Smoke began to fill the cockpit, and then flames began shooting out of the control panel. A moment later, the ship’s fire safety mechanism went off. The small flood of chemicals raining down from the overhead vents doused the flames immediately, and the smoke slowly started to dissipate. Then, when everything seemed to be back in order, something deep within the innards of the Relay 2 very loudly and distinctly went “click.”

The little transport lurched as it was suddenly and violently ripped out of hyperspace. TRN Relay 2 was dead in space, and they were slowly drifting into a large planet that neither of them recognized. Emon tried fiddling with the controls, but nothing happened. He tried bringing up the ship’s nav bar and map, but the computer was down too. Masch, who up until this point had been uncharacteristically silent, looked over and said without a hint of sarcasm, “Nice flying.”

“Well,” said Uopal after a slight pause, “if we’re going to be here a while, we ought to check on our friend.”

They both walked over to where the other man was still lying unconscious, and they proceeded to give him a thorough search the way only a bounty hunter can. Of course, the first thing Emon and Uopal each did was taking one of the blaster pistols that had caused so much trouble for them earlier. Next, they rifled through his pockets to see what they could find. Emon dug out a few hundred Imperial credits, and Uopal found the man’s identification card. It listed his name as Orbin Bractal, and proved that he was indeed a certified Imperial Food Inspector.

Then Masch just kicked him into a corner and walked back over to the controls. Emon followed, and he again toggled with the radio, radar, and main computer, but it was no use. The huge green and purple planet looming ahead of them was visible through the transport’s broad front window screen. They were in orbit around it, and closing in quickly.

“Do you have any idea where we are?” Emon asked as the little ship was accelerating its decline.

Uopal just shook his head, and then began a question of his own, “So about that mission you flew for the Emperor…”

Emon was trying to think of a way to change the subject, when a soft whimpering rescued him.

Orbin, the other Food Inspector, had finally woken from his stun, and had managed to sit up. “You aren’t going to kill me, are you?” he asked in a high-pitched, whiny, and very scared voice.

Without even looking back, Emon said simply, “I don’t think we’ll need too.”

The crash was deafening as the Relay 2 hurdled into the side of a small, rocky hill on the strange planet. Pieces of the transport broke off at random, and others folded into themselves. The collision caused a small landslide, which buried half of the wrecked transport. For a long time after, everything was silent.

Feeling pain everywhere that wasn’t numb, Emon pulled himself up to his hands and knees. He stared blankly at the small puddle of blood he had been lying in. He ran a hand up his face and felt a sticky mess where his hair was clinging to the top of his forehead. He guessed that he must have hit his head during the crash. “Oh well,” he thought. He had had much worse before. He looked around, and saw that the other two men were still down - asleep, unconscious, or dead, he didn’t know. He couldn’t think straight. And his head hurt. He cradled it in his arms and went back to sleep.