BALANCE | A Star Wars story

III

I'm out of my seat and down the hall within a second. I throw myself through the small door that leads into the cockpit and grasp the back of Master Nilims chair.

     "What's happening?" I say leaning over to look up at the obsidian sky scattered with thousands of twinkling golden stars.

     "Pirates," he says shortly pressing more buttons on the console.

     "Pirates? I didn't think pirates attacked like this," I question as another blast nearly knocks me over.

     "Well whoever they are, they're damaging our ship, get to the gun!" He commands and I mentally slap myself, I should've been there from the start. So much for doing better. I turn and climb the ladder at the end of the hall, a blast strikes the ship causing my body to fling to the side, my shoulder collides with the wall sending a wave of pain rippling through the injured area.

     Kriffing hell that hurts, I think to myself as I continue up the ladder. I reach the small room and pull on my headset whilst sliding onto the metal chair in the centre of the room. I guess it's good that Master Nilim made me practice this so much I could do it in my sleep. I grasp the handles to the gun and pivot so that I am facing our attacker.

An intercepter class frigate is pointed straight at us, the turbolaser canons at the bottom fire at random intervals.

"Interceptor class frigate, Master." I say into the headset as I position our laser canon towards one of their turbolaser canons.

"I didn't think that thing had many weapons." Comes his reply through the headset.

"Well it's either had an upgrade or these pirates know exactly where to hit such a small ship." The screen in front of my lights up and I fire missing the left canon by an inch, our attackers respond by firing a turbolaser, hitting the top of the ship, the force of the blast almost knocking me out of the chair.

Heavy curses come spouting out of Master Nilim's mouth through the headset. I right myself and take aim once again.

"What've we lost?" I say successfully hitting the left canon.

"Hyperdrive and back shields." His voice is strained with anxiety and panic, something I never thought I would hear from my Master.

"Can you fly back to Saleucami? They surely won't follow us there." I ask a little hopefully firing again and hitting the large ship but it barely dents it.

"We won't make it, not without the shields." Cursing I turn to face to aim the canon once again but before I can fire my senses go crazy as the force yells warnings at me. On instinct I launch myself down the hatch and tumble to ground, I glance up to see yellow, orange flames engulf the chair where I was sat mere seconds ago.

     I slam the hatch shut preventing the flames from travelling any further into the ship, my eyes rake over my body searching for any injuries that haven't caught up to my brain yet. Thankfully, I don't find anything serious and the next blast reminds me that I need to move.

     I skid down the hall and back into the cockpit where Master Nilim is frantically tapping at controls whilst attempting to fly out of the firing zone.

     "We've lost the canon," I tell him my voice taking a tone of worry. Master Nilim stops what he's doing and turns to face me, his usual facade of calm is distorted by fear and expression I've never seen upon my Master's face.

     "Get to the escape pod," is all he says before turning back around to mess with the buttons on the wall.

     "What? And leave the Remdepti?" I ask incredulous, I don't dare to mention that he only said for me to go. He has to come as well. He's all I have.