BALANCE | A Star Wars story

XXII

I yank the random flash drive I found out of the computer and rush out of the room as fast as my feet allow. I can feel several people running from the left so I run right and I hear someone shout behind me but I don't turn around I just run.

I slip the flash drive a tight pocket on my chest and let the force guide me as I have no idea which way to run. All the corridors here look identical it's unbelievably easy to get lost here, I only hope that means I can easily loose my pursuers.

Alarm bells ring in my head and I move to the left slightly as a glowing red laser passes by where I was a moment before. I keep running whilst I turn my blaster off stun and shoot randomly behind me, I don't turn to look if I hit anyone my main focus is reaching the ship.

My calves burn and my breathes are laboured by the time I reach the familiar elevator, I hurriedly press the down button and watch as two men run down the corridors I hide behind the closing doors and shoot back at them.

"Stop! Intruder!" The one on the left yells. I continue shooting and manage to hit the one on the right in the chest just below his heart. "Vidarr!" He yells and drops next to his fallen comrade. His eyes meet mine just as the doors close but not soon enough, I already saw the hatred in his eyes, the fear and the anger directed towards me.

I slump to the floor, I just killed a man.

An innocent man who was just doing his job.

I feel his presence in the force blink out and I feel the pain of the other guard. Silently, as I ride the elevator down, I grieve for the man above me. I grieve for his friends and family who don't yet know I have just taken someone they loved.

The doors click open and I force myself to my feet, an alarm in sounding now and in a moment this hangar will be swamped with guards.

I run to the Hutts ships praying to all the gods that he is ready to leave, I rush up the ramp shouting as I go.

"You better be kriffing ready to go Hutt we need to get out of here!" I receive no response and slide round the corner and into the cockpit. No ones there. "Hutt!" I call out loudly, still no response.

I circle back and go into the Hutts room, no one.

"Oh kriffing hells." I swear under my breath. He isn't back yet, I debate taking his ship and abandoning him but decide against it. I couldn't do that to him.

Hastily I scribble a note in Huttese very briefly outlining the situation and hide it in the top secret compartment he once showed me in the Engineering Bay.

     "It's my place to hide anything if the ships going to get ransacked," he once said. "Dunno what'll happen when we get there so any valuables that you don't want found, in here." I open the compartment and place in the note and take out my lightsaber, if hidden it here before we left just in case someone decided to do a surprise inspection of the ship.

I run back down the ramp with my lightsaber ignited just in case but thankfully the hangar is still empty. I run back up onto the catwalk and through a door on the left, it leads to another hangar with a TIE Interceptor in it.

A ladder leads up to a higher catwalk which I immediately begin to scale and once I reach the top I jump down into the small circular cockpit of the Interceptor.

I've never been a good pilot and have always hated flying, but I push some buttons and the screens in front of me light up. I flick a switch and the engines boost up, I feel the presence of about 50 others before I hear the shouts that come with them.

The TIE shudders as it is hit by several bullets at once. "Come on, come on." I mutter and grasp the wheel forcing it up slightly and then forwards as I zoom out of the hangar and back into space bullets trailing aimlessly after me.

○ ○ ○

Only when Iokath is far behind me is it that I put the TIE in autopilot and just stop and think for a moment.

Resting my head back on my seat with my hands on my head, I let my tears fall.

I cry for Master Nilim, who was always so good to me and unjustly met his end and I haven't even held a funeral for him.

I cry for the Hutt back on Iokath who I abandoned without a proper goodbye, he's not the best person out there but he's grown on me the last few days.

I cry for the Jedi out there in more danger than they realise and I some lowly Jedi with amnesia who hasn't even been allowed on a real mission, has to try save them.

I could go back to Coruscant, tell the council and let them deal with it whilst I sit on the sidelines yet again.

     But some selfish part of me wants to be the hero. I want to go back to the council finally having done something that matters. Something that will stand out. So no one will laugh at me again and talk about when they think I can't hear. Call me the lowly girl missing her memories, call me a liability, tease me for not being allowed on the missions even padawans years younger than me are allowed on.

     I'll go back to them after saving their asses and they'll have to treat me equally, treat me as though I'm one of them. Not some child stuck in an adults body, learning things that younglings do.

     It's wrong. I know that. I can't help it though, my need to stand out, to be the one the spotlights on, is greater than the sensible part of my brain telling me I'm going to need back up on this.

     Besides it's not like they won't know, in the message I left for the Hutt I asked him to tell the council and send back up to Korriban as soon as they can.

      But it'll be a long time before the Hutt can travel to Coruscant deliver the message and the council to actually be bothered to send some back up. And anyway the Hutt might not be arsed to make the journey, then I wouldn't have to share the spotlight at all.

     I wipe away the tears on my cheeks and stare at the twinkling stars with newfound purpose.

     I'm going to show the council exactly what I can do.