Star Wars: Rebellion and Betrayal

Chapter 33

Abie sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine. But we are putting Lena in shackles. Xisuma, Davant, bind her and bring her to the bridge. And someone go find Governor Kerrim. She will want to hear this."

Abie stormed off before anyone could say any more. Xisuma and Davant looked at each other before approaching Lena. Without looking up, Lena held out her arms and allowed the two men to fasten a pair of stun cuffs on her wrists. Twitch stuck close to her while the group made their way toward the bridge with Hunter leading the way.

The bridge was silent when they arrived. Abie was pacing around the room mouthing words to herself. She snapped out of it when Hunter rolled into the room with a few low tones. Abie waved her hand and two more soldiers armed with blaster rifles took hold of Lena's arms. She offered no resistance, letting the two soldiers take her to a seat in the corner of the room.

"You don't have to..." Twitch began to say before giving up and finding a spot next to one of the men guarding Lena. A few more minutes of silence passed before Kasdeya was ushered into the room.

"Ok, Hunter," Abie started. "Play the message."

The astromech issued a few beeps before rolling to the center of the room. He activated his holoprojector and played the message.

The Imperial Star Destroyers Kaali and Allegiant sat suspended in space, still immobile from the ion blasts. While the battle had long since ended, the tension was only rising on the bridge of the Kaali. While engineers worked to restore power to the disabled Star Destroyers, the bridge of the Kaali was uncharacteristically silent.

Governor Henning was standing at the beginning of the command walkway that ran between the two crew pits before wrapping back around along the forward viewports. Supervisor Aga stood directly in front of the viewport, staring out into space where he could see multiple Imperial ships returning from the moon of Mercuris.

Since the Star Destroyer was struck by multiple ion blasts from the moon's surface, he hadn't turned around. The rest of the bridge crew had asked for directions, but Aga simply dismissed them with a wave of the hand. Afterall, without power, there wasn't much anyone could do. They were essentially trapped on the bridge until the turbolifts came back online.

As the returning Imperial ships passed beneath the Kaali, headed for the hangar, Aga turned around with a sigh. He made eye contact with McCart who was grinning ear to ear.

"The Admiral will not be happy when she returns," he chuckled while crossing his arms. McCart was relishing this moment.

Right after Leneh had left for the moon, the two began to argue over who was to lead the blockade. McCart eventually bowed out once the Inquisitor transmitted her warning. Before the rebel ships even appeared on the cruiser's scanners, the Kaali and Allegiant were being bombarded from two streams of ion blasts.

Realistically, there was nothing the disgruntled Supervisor could have done. But that wasn't something that McCart was concerned about. It just meant he didn't go down for letting them escape. He waited in anticipation as Aga stared daggers at him.

"You know full well that there was nothing we could have done there," the Supervisor finally said. "The Admiral will have to deal with the fact that the rebels outsmarted us. She shouldn't have even let a single ship off the surface."

A few seconds after saying this, the computer consoles and holoprojectors on the bridge powered up. Both men couldn't help but shudder because not too long after, they heard the whir of the turbolift rising toward the bridge. Aga walked up next to McCart who had turned around and both men anxiously watched the door.