What took you so long…

[Nubica Felidae]

Nubica kept still until she sensed the moment was right. The vantage point she’d reached was out of their eyeline. And once Jacen fired, they’d be looking around — so she had to hold tight. Only when they returned fire would she know it was safe to move.

But she knew that was going to force him to be the focus of their shots until she was in position.

By the time he’d fired three times, they’d made him and were shooting back. And then she moved. The remainder of the climb was a challenge and with the potential of being shot an added concern. But one she ignored, she couldn't afford to be distracted from the task in hand. So she moved as quickly as she could until finally she reached the walkway.

Running in a crouched form, to minimise her visual target, she made it all the way across and before the soldiers began to fire at her. And then came the smoke. To the uninitiated it would have made blocking blaster bolts harder, but she had the Force.

And it snapped her lightsaber to her hand and brought the blade to life as blaster rifles sang a rhythm as fast as a many hands could squeeze.

The Force moved her hands faster than thought. She wove a shield across her body, catching and scattering a flood of blasterfire.

Bolts splintered off in all directions; the erratic staccato of badly aimed shots took all her concentration and skill to intercept. She sank deeper and deeper into the Force, surrendering more and more of her conscious thought to the instinctive whirl of Vaapad, and even so some bolts slipped past her and into the wall beyond.

She was too deep in Vaapad to make a plan, too deep even to think, but she was a Jedi: she didn't have to think.

She knew.

If she stayed on this walkway, they’d eventually pick her off.

So she leaned into the gale of blasterfire and jumped down to where she believed the deck below to be. Her blades flashing in blinding whirls of sundown purple, spraying a spiked fan of deflected bolts toward the smoke-shrouded walls, she drew their fire down.

She was aware, in an abstract, disconnected way, of an ache in her arms and the salt sting of sweat trickling into her eyes. She was aware of hot slashes of blaster grazes along her flanks, and of a chunk that had been torn from one thigh by a glancing hit. All these meant less to her than the new vectors of fire as she continued her relentless march.

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Nubica Felidae"]

Jacen knew the code. He knew that every kill pulled one closer to the dark side. At the same time he had been a soldier for over a decade and in that time he had ended the lives of many, both directly and from the orders he handed down to his men. Sometimes it was the only practical option, but it still pained him to do it. Whenever a Jedi activated the blade, it was with the knowledge that this might come to pass. He intrinsically knew that he had to kill the man ahead of him.

The soldier had a good bead on Nubica and was well outside of her periphery. The body could only move so fast and a good burst of fire from this soldier would be the straw that broke the camel’s back.

He drew on his last reserves to cross the space between them. His left foot came out and planted on the walkway. His upper body twisted from right to left, the power of the strike coming from the core through to the soldier.

The tip of the golden blade sheared through the gap between the armour plates at the nape of the neck. The life was snuffed out in an instant. Three quick strides sent Jacen accelerating towards the edge of the walkway. He drew the Force around him to aid his leap and stabilise his flight. Smoke billowed around him as he descended onto the walkway with the tractor controls. Only the red blaster bolts and the purple streak of Nubia’s blade were visible to the eye now.

 

[Nubica Felidae]

She felt people moving on all sides of her now, new people, shooting and shouting and stumbling amongst the smoke. But they were smart enough to understand she didn’t stand a chance in cross-fire. She felt their panic and fierce rage and the breathless desperation of their attack.

The smoke was punctuated with flashes of blaster bolts and a golden light. Jane’s saber. She kept her blades weaving its shield, almost impenetrable — but not quite. She gave more and more of herself over to the Force, letting it move her hands, his feet, letting it guide her through the battle.

Suddenly she felt a hostile presence lunge toward her back he whirled with effortless speed and amethyst light splashed fire through the long durasteel blade of a knife held in a gloved hand. A sliced-off piece skittered across the walkway and purple energy dropped like an axe for the kill —and stopped, trembling— one centimetre above a head.

A stub of knife, its new-cut edge still glowing hot, dropped from a nerveless hand. Stunned brown eyes, streaming tears that sparkled with brilliant purple highlights, stared up at her from either side of her blade.

“Stinkin' Jedi,” the soldier sobbed. He must have been her age, if not younger. ”Go on an' kill me. Go on an' kill everybody.”

“Not today,” she said and threw herself backward and with a shove of the Force sent the soldier skidding toward his comrades, bowling them down like skittles. “Not ever.” Her voice was weary.

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Nubica Felidae"]
There was a sharp flash of pain as the bolt clipped his shoulder. The energy had no momentum to send him tumbling, but the shock alone was enough to make him miss a step and slow his charge. The fatigue was simply becoming too much now. Even the clean movements of Soresu were not enough to sustain his defensive blade work.

Jacen took a different tack and deactivated his blade. He leaped to the deck, flattening himself against it and letting the bolts hiss through the smoke over his head.

One arm came up, fingers splayed. Tendrils extended through the Force to find the last two soldiers on the walkway ahead of him. Once he the Force presented a visual image of their location and stance in his mind's eye he took action. The fingers clenched into a fist as the Force encircled the two soldiers and slammed them together with extreme power.

Concussion wasn't as it was in the holoflicks. They wouldn't wake up dreary eyes in a few minutes and be fine. They'd be shaky, likely vomiting and would potentially blackouts and spells of dizziness for weeks. It was preferable to the other option.

Voidstalker got back to his feet tentatively. The bolt has cauterised the skin on his shoulder so there was nothing to be done about that for now. As he stepped up towards the console a swirling vortex trailed in his wake. A sudden rush of air followed and the smoke lifted. Wiping a sleeve across his eyes he checked where Nubica was before attempting to access the console.

 

[Nubica Felidae]

She faced just two soldiers now.

She reflexively slapped the bolts back at them — but instead of rebounding from her blade, the bolts suddenly splattered through it and grazed her ribs. Before a thought could fully form in her mind, the shooters flipped their weapons to autoburst. A blinding spray of bolts came at her.

She threw herself sideways, flipping in the air; a bolt clipped her shin, hammering her leg backward, turning her flip into a tumble, but she still managed to land in a crouch. While she was trying to feel her way toward what he might try next, she noticed that her blade cast a peculiarly pale light. Much too pale.

Even as she crouched there, staring drop-jawed into the paling shaft, it faded, flickered, and winked out. Her lightsaber was out of charge.

"That's not possible," she snarled. "It's not—"

“Jedi! Let's do this the easy way, huh? Nobody has to get hurt." If only that were true, Nubica thought.

And the fact they were giving her time to think wasn’t lost on her. For she was about to make them regret it.

"All right!" She reached up and splayed her hands. She let her decharged lightsaber dangle, thumb through its belt ring. "All right. Don't shoot."

She reached into the Force, and the surroundings crystallised around her: a web of shearplanes and stress lines and vectors of motion. It became a gemstone with flaws and fractures that linked the talker, his partner and her. No shatterpoint that she could see would get her out of this.

Doesn't mean I won’t, she thought. Just means it won't be easy. Or certain.

Or even likely.

She took one deep breath to compose himself. One breath was all it took. If the Force should bring death to her here, he was ready.

"Throw us the lightsaber," the soldier said.

"You are better prepared than most." She balanced his lightsaber on his palm. "But like all those I’ve faced before, you've forgotten the only piece of equipment that would actually do you any good."

"Yeah? What's that?"

Her voice went cold, and her eyes went colder. "An ambulance."

The soldier's smile tried to turn into a chuckle, but instead it faded away: her level stare was a humour-free zone.

"The lightsaber. Now."

"Sure." Nubica tossed it toward him. "Take it."

Her lightsaber tumbled through a long arc. In the Force she felt the soldiers fractionally relax: the slightest easing of trigger pressure: the tiniest shift of adrenaline-charged concentration. They relaxed because she was now unarmed.

Because neither of them understood what a lightsaber was.

She had begun the construction of her lightsaber when she was still a Padawan. On the day she first put hand to metal, she had dreamed that lightsaber for six years already: had imagined it so completely that it existed in her mind, perfect in every detail. Its construction was not creation, but actualisation: she took mental reality and made it physical. The thing of metal and gemstone, of particle beam and power cell, was only an expression; her real lightsaber was the one that existed only in the part of the Force Nubica called her mind.

A lightsaber was not a weapon. Weapons might be taken, or destroyed. Weapons were unitary entities. Many people even gave them names of their own. She would no more give a name to her lightsaber than she would to her hand. She was not the girl who first imagined its shape; nor was her lightsaber identical to that first image in the dreams of an eight-year-old girl. With each new step in her ever-deepening understanding of the Force and her place in it, she had rebuilt her lightsaber. Remade it. It had grown along with her.

Her lightsaber reflected all she knew. All she believed.

All she was.

Which was why it required no effort, no thought, to seize his lightsaber's tumbling handgrip through the Force and fire it like a bullet.

It screamed through the air and its butt took the soldier between the eyes with a hollow stone-on-wood whack. The impact flipped him off his feet, unconscious or dead before he hit the ground. His hands spasmed on the blaster, and it gushed energy. Through the Force she nudged the blaster's muzzle to sweep the talker's partner and blow him spinning to the ground.

She stepped forward and picked up the hilt and clipped it to her belt. She glanced over at Jacen. "Sorry I took so long. I think he had the hots for me. I had to let him down gently."

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Nubica Felidae"]

“If that’s gentle, you give me fair warning if one of the padawans is really bothering you so I can get out of the firing line,” he remarked. His hands moved across the console. Unfortunately someone had locked them out of the primary controls when the shooting started.

He paused and shook his head in concentration. One hand went to his saber which he casually tossed across to her. “Swap over the power pack if they’re compatible,” he said. “I can make do with the blasters for now and leave mine charging.”

Returning to the console he found some manual controls still active. With a twist of a few dials the power readings on the display strayed into the red. Several alert warnings flashed across the screen before a quite thrum started to sound. The power conduit above them started to flicker. The failsafe kicked in and capacitors syphoned the energy away from the main circuit. For good measure he fired a few shots from his blaster into the power couplings on the far wall and then toasted the console itself.

“Should buy us twenty minutes or so,” he said. His eyes glazed over as he tried to recall the layout of this model. He tried not to focus on how many more wounds she was now sporting. “We’ve got company headed this way. Through those doors and to the turbolifts at the far end. It’s time to steal a shuttle.”

“You’d have made a good officer’s cadet you know,” he reflected as they ran.

 

[Nubica Felidae]

She was tired and weary - but she was a Jedi and practiced at assembling and disassembling a saber with her eyes closed. She she quickly switched the power supply and checked it out. Fortunately it was just the juice, and not damage as it fired up straight away.

She always carried a spare. In her robes. Which could be anywhere now.

She clomped over to him, in a vest, pants and trooper boots, with a trooper's belt dangling around her waist and her saber clipped to it. People probably paid for that sort of image. Even with the damage she'd taken. Possibly that raised the price?

"So, what's an officer's cadet?" she asked in all seriousness. She knew how to fly, but her knowledge of life outside of being a Jedi was limited. She rarely worked with the navy or army and had no idea of their ranks, structures or even duties. Pilots she understood, but that was it.

"If there's a choice of shuttle, I suppose it's too much to ask for one in pink? Or red, to match my thigh?" She reached down and quickly unstrapped a chest plate from a prone soldier and then ripped off his shirt. She tore it and made it into a tourniquet to stem the blood. "I'd use Force Heal, but I was off that afternoon...or something." She probably skipped the lesson to spar. So she added it to the ever growing list as she limped after Jacen. "Hey...what do you call a pirate droid? Arrrrr2-D2..."

She smiled. "OK, I'll keep quiet."

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Nubica Felidae"]

“Officer in training,” he replied simply. “And I was going to say because you’re adaptable, tough as nails, good in a scrap and have a sense of humour. However, after that I’m taking back the last one,” he said with a chuckle.

Casting his eyes over the padawan, decided that taking a brief pause was worth the risk. Placing a hand on her shoulder he asked her to hold still. It had been a while since his first lessons with Master Nytrau back on Ossus and he had never really perfected the skill. It would be a drain on his reserves, but having the girl losing mobility or bleeding out was an even greater risk. Getting her out of this in one piece was what mattered.

Getting down onto one knee he placed the flat of his hand against the outside of her thigh, ignoring any protests. There was one long diaphragmatic breath outwards as he found his centre and turned his focus to that hand. His attention was all on the skin of his palm before he gradually extended outwards towards the wound. She’d lost some muscle and flesh in that strike. That damaged tissue and the rapid flow of blood felt like a prickly heat. Once he had a good sense of the damage he poured forth what energy he had left. Over a few seconds the tissues started to regenerate and exposed blood vessels closed off.

Opening his eyes he took a deep breath in. There was a pallid looked to his skin now and dark bags under his eyes. It would still need medical attention when they were back with the Alliance, but at least he’d started the healing process and taken out of of immediate danger.

 

[Nubica Felidae]

Nubica laughed. In part because it was funny, there was a small measure of gallows humour and finally she was pretty much exhausted.

“Actually a white shuttle would be nice. With a big red cross and a fully stocked med-bay.”

And then he put a hand on her shoulder. She wondered if he was going to admonish her, praise her or give her a pep talk. But it was none of those things. She felt the Force flood into her. She’d received healing in this way before. This time it was more vibrant. Perhaps because her own Force reserves were so depleted? Or her physical state? Regardless, the sensation was welcome and she felt instantly physically and emotionally better. Enough to remove the tourniquet and flex her knee to realise she would no longer limp.

“Thanks,” she offered. It wasn’t much of a speech but, despite the healing it was all she had. “I appreciate it, I really do. If it weren’t for you, I’d still be in that cell, and I don’t know how long I could have held out.” Despite her genuine sincerity, there was still a small gleam in her eyes.

“And if I’m a officer in training, I think you’re a gemütlichkeit in training. Which sounds a but of a mouthful I now.” Now a smile was playing on her lips. “Maybe I’ll just use an acronym. Gemütlichkeit in training. G...I...T...Hmmmm…that could work.”

She moved towards the hangar. “No sense of humour, eh?” she said over her shoulder. “You’re going to regret that one, saviour or no saviour.”

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Nubica Felidae"]

There was a gormless grin on his face as she spoke, but if she looked carefully she'd see the pained expressed restricted to his eyes. “Let's get the feth out of here,” he sighed. His fingers found a rifle and this time he used it to as a crutch to get himself back to his feet. She'd suffered more wounds than him in the gunfights, but his reserves were running low. The edges of his vision had started to darken.

Come on old git, just get her out of here and you can have a nice long rest. Nice long rest, he thought to himself.

He started with the first step. That went well so he took another. Before he knew it he was jogging after her as she turned over her shoulder and flashed him that infectious smile once more.

Jacen still had enough wits to feel the warning as the cylindrical door of the turbilift slid open. He didn't shout, nor did his mental communication come was words, it was a base instruction sent as a raw concept. Move left.

He skidded to one knee and fired as the doors were opening. The two stormtroopers inside were brought down by bright cerulean stun rings before they could react.

“Deck seven,” he said quietly to Nubica.

 

[Nubica Felidae]

Deep down she knew he’d weakened himself to replenish her health — but now was not the time to dwell on it, or remind him of the fact. He was a Jedi and a Master. She was a Padawan. It was the order of things. Something, should she ever progress that far, she’d have to do one day.

“Getting the feth,” she punctuated as she walked. Being contrary wasn’t just part of her make-up, it was what kept her going when times were tough. She wasn’t one of these calm and serene Jedi that acted like swans, never revealing how much paddling was going on under the surface. There was an edge to her. She didn’t try to hide it. But she never forgot she was a Jedi.

She pressed the pace now. Again, there was no concern for Jacen. He needed to go at the speed she was dictating. If he couldn’t they would come up with a new plan. But going slow from the outset was not an option. They both knew that.

Suddenly doors opened in front of them and, injured and raw or not, the Jedi Master acted faster, taking down the two troopers before she could blink.

She stepped into the lift, not bothering to move the bodies — it would only delay them. She punched in the command to take them to the correct deck. Jacen’s knowledge of the station had saved them a lot of time. If she hadn’t appreciated his learning before, she certainly did now.

As the turbo lift travelled up, she picked up one of the rifles and, checking it over, found the stun setting. “OK, I may not be the best shot, but the element of surprise has gone and up close, I can’t be that bad, can I? Just don’t stand in front of me.”

As she finished speaking, the doors opened. “Deck seven. Ships, shuttles and obligatory guards. Have a nice escape, sir.”

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

Jacen closed his eyes as the turbolift quickly accelerated upwards. Just a few silent moments to steel himself for what was to come. The corner of his mouth turned up as Nubica announced their arrival, but he refrained from replying. Every ounce of his concentration was dedicated to keeping his body moving; the Force could only sustain someone for so long.

As they stepped out of the lift and into another military-grey corridor he turned and looked over the rifle in her hands. “Gentle pressure on the trigger. Too many people pull hard and yank their aim off. I'll show you properly when we're back at Sullust,” he said, voice barely above a whisper. Not if, but when.

Nothing was between them and the main hangar. However as they arrived several more squads of reinforcements were just stepping down from a shuttle. Jacen risked a quick glance through the door before pulling his head back out if sight.

“There's a row of TIEs down the left, shuttles down the right. Big flat open space and nearly a platoon of soldiers waiting to say hello,” he said. He looked down at the display on the back of his carbine. Seventy four shots before he needed to swap out the power pack. With a few quick motions he swapped it for a fresh one and the display returned to a hundred. Better safe than sorry. “You break right, I'll break left. Get into cover quickly and I'll seal the doors behind us.”

Jacen braced the folding stock of the carbine against his shoulder. In one smooth motion he twisted his body around, brought up the blaster and fired. Three quick shots took two down and then he used up his reserves throwing out a telekinetic wave that sent the nearest troopers sprawling.

“Go!” he screamed and he broke into a run. Several bolts crossed his path just before and behind him as his legs pumped hard. Feet first he went into a slide that brought himself behind the flat wings of a TIE fighter. He rolled onto his stomach and switched to lethal bolts. The next shot was for the control panel behind them. Now they were sealed in the hangar. Last roll of the dice.

 

[Nubica Felidae]

If the doors opening and seeing nothing but a corridor painted battle-cruiser grey was an anti-climax, Nubica was delighted to be underwhelmed. For she knew it wouldn’t last.

She took the advice. Aiming she could cope with, the tip on using the trigger was welcomed. With any luck, she wouldn’t need to put it into practice. But if it were not for bad fortune, they’d have no luck at all. “Thanks,” she offered. She’d said it a lot in the past few hours.

She built a mental image of the docking bay — left, right, open space. Troopers. She could have used Force Sight, but she didn’t know how much she could use the Force. Her saber would take priority and she had a trick or two up her sleeve if she needed it, but she knew her limitations.

So as Jacen ran forward, she followed his instruction and dashed to the right and immediately took up a spot behind the first shuttle, which afforded her maximum cover. As before, the Jedi Master was drawing their attention but bolts were ricochetting off the ship she was standing behind, suggesting some had seen her run in.

She saw the doors slide closed. On the plus side, there could be no reinforcements. On the down side, they were trapped in with the troopers. She smiled. She had said there was a first time for everything.

She put the rifle down on the floor and stepped out from the safety of her hiding spot. Her hands were high and fortunately the soldiers stopped firing. They were well trained it seemed. Well…fairly well trained. Had they been more observant, she would have seen one of her hands moving slightly. It was controlling something. A stun grenade that was now positioned above the heads of the troopers that would now come to take her back into custody.

She had no idea how long the fuse was, but she figured seconds. She smiled demurely and hoped they wouldn’t get too close, as she didn’t want to be caught in the blast. Fortunately the Force gave her a little nudge by way of a warning and she dived back behind the shuttle as the grenade went off. She picked up the rifle and, kneeling, peered back around the ‘corner’ to see what her little trick had done.

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Nubica Felidae"]

His heart had worked its way up into his mouth as he saw the wilful padawan step out from behind a shuttle with her hands in the air. He expected to see a soldier come out behind her, with the barrel of a blaster trained on a spot between her shoulder blades. Jacen saw the expression on her face before noting the lack of a captor. He didn’t know Nubica all that well, but he was able to read that look. His eyes traced a line following her gaze to see the stun grenade lift up. Even know she had a plan he was all too aware of the sound of his own heartbeat as those moments stretched out in time. If he had been one of the soldiers, he’d have hit her with a stun bolt by now.

Voidstalker rolled back out of sight as the grenade went off. Sensing danger behind him he walked briskly around the edge of the TIE’s wing, rifle held over his head. The Stormtrooper had thought to flank him. Instead he received the butt of a rifle to the top of his helm in one swift strike.

Jacen kept moving, sidestepping as he continued to fire bursts to keep the remaining troopers from manoeuvring around him. He had to advance towards the control console on the far side of the hangar bay, if he allowed the Stormtroopers to surround him it was game over. A nice neat pile of bodies lay twitching. Those caught on the edge of the radius of the blast were moving – very slowly – back towards their weapons. There was little conscious thought now. He allowed instinct to run his actions, so that his drained limbs could react to threats before his mind caught up.

Find a ship we can take! He called to Nubica. He hadn’t explained why he broke left and she broke right. It was so that if this went badly, she was next to the shuttles they had to use for escape.

 

[Nubica Felidae]

Between Jacen’s efforts and Nubica’s stun grenade, the remaining troopers were focused on the Jedi Master. So she glanced around, quickly estimating which ship would be easiest to steal, get out of the hangar and finally be in a position to evade any pursuers. It was a tall order and she had a matter of seconds to decide.

So avoiding those that were clearly being worked on, she ran to a nondescript shuttle and ran up the landing ramp. She dashed to the cockpit and checked the controls. They were simple enough to operate and a cursory glance at warning lights as she powered up suggested it was fully operational.

She programmed in a hyperspace coordinate immediately. She didn't know how much they might have their hand’s full later, and moments before it was ready to lift-off, she sent Jacen a mental message.

‘Now is a good time.’

Logically he would have heard the ship start up, and true to form, a few trooper’s heads turned her way too. She diverted power to the front shields and started to manoeuvre the craft. She could close the ramp from here, she was pleased to see, and so she watched the Jedi Master with bated breath, ready to punch the button to close the ship up and push the throttle to get them out of here.

“Come on, come on…” she muttered under her breath. “If you come now, I won’t call you a GIT again if you hurry up. Well, not in public anyway.”

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Nubica Felidae"]

He felt the tingle of phantom pain before the bolt hit. Just that briefest flare came with enough time for him to hastily raise a weak barrier. The fragile field took the sting out of the shot, but the pain of the strike still lanced up his body. Jacen was aware of the clatter of his rifle as it slipped from his grip.

Twisting about on his heel his sidearm snapped into his hand. Two quick shots were fired off on instinct alone. Smoke curled up from the impact points in the trooper’s chest and head. For a moment he lay there, knuckles white on the grip of the pistol. Then he felt he insistence through the Force.

Up! Move! Rest soon…

Slick with sweat, his hand nearly betrayed him as he returned to his feet. The wound on his back wasn’t deep, but now it pained him just to stay upright. The periphery faded as his tunnel vision focussed on the console. One hand slapped at it as he used it as purchase to stay upright.

Jacen started to his buttons before there was another warning. His right arm swung across his chest and over his shoulder. Without even looking he shot down the stromtrooper rushing towards him. He used the butt of his pistol to crack the display screen when he was done. Looking up he saw the shimmering energy field change hue as it was altered to permit the shuttle to exit.

Using the console to stay upright he turned and waved the pistol towards the shuttle he could see floating in the air with Nubica at the helm. He signalled for her to drop past him so he could make for the door.

 

[Nubica Felidae]

She saw him and kept her nerve. She would never leave without him but timing was crucial. The ship was programmed to drop the energy shield on exit and would only be overridden if someone on the bridge suspected something. Like a ship waiting indefinitely to launch.

She sensed as much as saw his discomfort and difficulty in remaining upright, let alone rush to the ship. So she edged the shuttle forward, to lessen the distance — before seeing him indicate he needed her a lot closer.

So she taxied the ship alongside him, the ramp still lowered, and she used what little Force energy she had to sense his location. The moment she was aware he was on the ship, she’d close the door and high-tail it out of there.

“Come on, come on…” she muttered. They were so close now…

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

The brief stumble in his dash was covered by a leap that threw him into the open hatch. He rolled across the deck and slammed into the opposite bulkhead heavily. He rolled onto one side and kept the blaster pistol trained on the hatch continuously as it slid shut.

He kept a bead on the door for a few second longer, his arm kept up until it started to shake. It was almost painful to relax his whitened knuckles a d lower his arm.

Bracing one shoulder against the wall, he forced himself to his feet. Keeping his weight against the bulkhead he half slid, half walked to the cockpit, pausing only to rip a medkit from the wall. He stepped into the cockpit, one shoulder still keeping him propped up, whilst the opposite hand clung to the blaster. Droplets of blood escaped from his sleeve and trickled down the barrel of the weapon.

He slumped into the chair heavily, turning to Nubica. "Make an emergency hop into empty space, then we'll calculate a path to Fleetcom. Punch it!"

 

[Nubica Felidae]

She sensed him enter the ship and hit the button that raised the ramp and switched the power to the rear shields…it wouldn’t do to have him killed once he’d clambered on board.

She heard him make his may to the cockpit. It was a short journey but it was like travelling with a pinball that bounced around the ship as it made its way towards her.

“Ahead of you,” she said as they exited the ship and she punched the code that would take her to a safe spot — from where they could easily return to friendly territory. She wanted to help him but refused to take her eyes off the ship’s controls and display until she finally saw the pin-pricks of light blur into lines.

Once they did, she grabbed the med-kit from under the dashboard of controls and rip it open. Bacta packs and meds were applied and injected. Stoping his flow of blood was first priority. Then pain relief. Pleased he was at least stable, she checked out the small ship and returned with water and ration packs. “They may taste like poodoo, but right now, it’s very tasty poodoo. Eat.”

“Oh…and did I say thanks?”

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Nubica Felidae"]

Jacen grasped one of the silvery packets which held the ration equivalent of a dessert. Right now it was something with high energy he needed. In fact he was liable to try and quaff down a few thousand calories as quickly as he could. He had drawn deep on the Force to keep him going for the last mad twenty minutes. Soon he would crash and if he didn't replenish his energy stores his body was going to be in serious trouble.

He merely smiled when she asked the question. A slight incline of his head said that she didn't really need to, but he still appreciated the sentiment. His expression hardened for a moment as he polished off one energy bar and started to unwrap a second.

"Have you got anything that needs looking at?" he asked. "If you have sit down and I'll give them a check in a moment. Otherwise, I think I might just have a little nap in a few minutes," he said, his voice trailing off to a sigh. "You did good kid. Wouldn't have made it out on my own."