Birth of the Jedi

Chapter 9

Another wave of fire, accompanied by a barrage of baritone curses, explodes through the doorway and Raun rolls toward Sahria, barely escaping. The fire continues in a steady stream, making it difficult for him to spy around the corner. "This guy is smarter," he whispers to Sahria. "He's staying covered."

"Don't worry," Padawan says as he crawls out of the hidden compartment he had shared with Raun. "I can take care of this one." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a glowing, blue ball which he plops into his slingshot. Raun raises a hand in protest, but Padawan hurls it down the corridor before he can object.

The ensuing explosion lights up the entire ship with a fiery red and orange blaze, and sends a back draft of flames through the door of the engine room intense enough to singe their skin before dissipating. The blaster fire ceases.

"Could you try a little caution," yells Raun, standing and dusting himself off. "It won't do us much good if you blow the ship up with us in it."

"Looks like he did pretty good," Sahria says, picking up a light from one of the fallen intruders. "You weren't planning on salvaging anything, were you?" Raun shoots her a look of annoyance. "You're just upset that a woman and a little boy had to save your hide."

"Hey: I helped out. And the hard part is still ahead, anyhow. The only way out of here is to take control of that freighter, so we better get moving before they figure out what's going on; we need to keep surprise on our side. Besides," he points in Padawan's direction. "Wonder boy here may have breached the hull."

Sahria gets to her feet and goes to look for KP-3, who is lying lifeless on a table in another room, still smoking from a new round of insults to his circuitry. "Help me carry him," she says to Padawan. "I don't think we'll be coming back."

"Karschek, is that you?" asks a human voice from the other side of the air lock connecting the helpless shuttle to the freighter.

"Who posts a guard at the hatch when you think you've killed everyone on board the other ship?" Raun whispers, ducking behind a narrow archway.

Padawan and Sahria gently put KP-3 down, the clang of metal touching metal ringing down the corridor despite their care. "It's hard to be stealthy with this big lug of bolts in tow," she says.

"Karschek?" the voice asks again, sounding alarmed. "If that's you, give the code.

Raun looks at Sahria with a questioning look. She thinks for a moment, then scans the floor for debris, settling on a small metal tool dislodged during the ransacking. Outstretching her arm, she closes her eyes and concentrates. Her hand begins to shake and, for a moment, nothing happens. Then the object slowly rises from the floor and hovers. Sahria throws her hand forward and the objects jettisons through the airlock in a wild corkscrew pattern, whizzing by two startled guards and slamming into a wall somewhere inside the freighter.

"What the . . ." The two men step into the corridor with their backs turned, trying to glimpse what had just flown past them. Raun grins at Sahria before firing two carefully aimed shots.

"Hope that's all of them" he says as he stands up and carefully makes his way onto the other ship, his blaster drawn and ready. Sahria and Padawan follow with KP-3. On the other side, Sahria tries several doors until she finds a small, empty compartment.

"He should be fine in here," she says. "Hopefully no one will stumble onto him if they come to check things out."

"Should we close the hatch?" Padawan asks.

"No," says Raun. "It'll alert them on the bridge that something's up." He scans the corridor for ideas. "I sure wish we had KP up and running. We could use him to access their ship's computer."