STAR WARS: Fugitive

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Hey there, Peri! Hope I didn't keep you waiting too long!" called a jovial, smooth sounding male voice. Peri had to admit that as impatient as he gets, this was actually much earlier than expected.

"I'm glad you made it! I must have caught you at a good time, eh? How's the weather back on Zeltros" Peri asked.

"A little windy, actually, these days, especially around the equator; nothing serious, seasonal," he said, "Actually I was headed this way when I got your signal; had some outstanding favors to track down here, so I figured I'd see what you needed and try to get some work done on the side. How was the weather where you've been?" This was an informal code they used on the off-chance that someone managed to listen in, either sharing their comlink frequency or actually in physical earshot unbeknownst to the other party.

"Very rough, lately, actually! I was nearly killed by a typhoon; I even picked up a couple of mean scratches from all the debris," Peri answered.

"Oh! You'll have to show-and-tell as soon as we land!" He really played up the anticipation. "So, if we're up for the usual business, you'll be owing me a favor this time."

"I understand," responded Peri, "This debt will be well worth the trouble!"

They exchanged more code about the weather working out a landing site near a popular casino. They would meet at Peri's landing site. After signing off, Peri selected a transponder code for the planetary authorities and gave T3 landing details, then climbed out of the cockpit to go check up on Thera.

In the lounge, he found Thera at the far end in a one-armed handstand on her left hand, her right arm extended parallel to the deck, her legs spread apart, nearly unnaturally parallel to the deck as well, toes pointed, and her lightsaber floating in the air just above her right hand. Her vest and belt had been neatly piled on the sofa next to the edge, close to where he stood. He caught himself admiring her flexibility when she spoke. "Impressed by what you see?" She didn't flinch, but her lightsaber rose slowly higher, closer to her leg.

Trying to sound nonchalant and unembarrassed ...I just know she sees right through me..., he replied, "Oh, I uh, I mean, I was trying not to disturb you." He paused. Thera grinned slightly as she felt his awkward emotions. Neither of them moved for several more seconds, while the lightsaber twisted and rotated slowly in place. "Do you do this often?" he asked finally.

She brought her legs together, rolled methodically to her feet, then caught her lightsaber as it drifted toward her hand. "This is the first time I've done this with my weapon successfully," she replied with a smile, and winked at him, "or actually it would have been successful if I had lifted more items."

"Problems with multitasking, eh?" he asked, trying to sound casual. She nodded, rolling her eyes at herself. "You seem in a better mood. Are you feeling better?" asked Peri.

"Somewhat, yes," she replied, "I will be able to cope."

"Good! You made me a bit worried earlier." Quite a bit worried, actually, but she didn't sound too overly concerned now, nor did she seem too clear on the matter earlier, really, so he suspected it may be nothing of consequence, hopefully. "Everything's gone well with my contact," he continued, "We'll be landing soon, and I may need your help setting up for Lady Gosell's interrogation."

Soon after Peri finished briefing Thera, the freighter began to shake mildly. "We're in the atmosphere now; I'll be in the cockpit. Don't touch anything until we land!" said Peri over his shoulder as he hurried toward the cockpit. Thera reassembled her clothing, then walked slowly into the engineering spaces to one of the cargo-holds and opened the hatch. Lady Gosell, sitting on the deck with her back against the far bulkhead, straightened up, startled with anticipation.

"What's going on?" Lady Gosell demanded.

Peri glanced across his instruments as his ship approached one of the capital city's spaceports. Noticing a couple of engine light warning indications, he said, "T3, remind me to work out getting caught up on our periodic maintenance, or we may set ourselves up to be stranded in hyperspace the next time we jump." It was easy to let routine checks slip when they routinely didn't show much by way of material degradation, especially since lately he'd grown more distracted with his self-imposed mission. Still, he knew, letting engineering upkeep take backburner for too long could mean getting stranded somewhere far from civilization. Suddenly, a warning light he never expected came on. An airlock had opened. His adrenaline started kicking in – I know she didn't do what I think she just did – "T3, continue taking her down while I check on that airlock!" he said as he toppled back out of his pilot's seat and hurried aft.

He found Lady Gosell's hold opened with her eyes wide open in some version of terror, hanging on to stowage webbing with her cuffed hands for her life, her lower body dangling with cuffed ankles from the open airlock in the wind tunnel newly created in the cargo-hold he'd placed her in. Just perfect! Acting quickly, he grabbed her arm and began tugging her back into the hold. As her knees made it inside, the freighter lurched, and Peri heard an explosion followed by a few wisps of smoke streaking passed the airlock. The lurch caused him to lose his balance and collapse onto the deck, a bit of the grip between them shaking loose. By sheer survival instinct he shot his legs outward and caught both edges of the hatch opening with the toes of his boots. He managed to pull her into the hold and provide her with a better grip of the stowage webbing, then twisted and reached back to grab the sides of the hatch, and then pulled himself within reach of the airlock controls and pulled the activation lever. The airlock slammed shut, and the two of them collapsed to the deck. Peri barely had energy to stand, as Gosell gasped for breath.

The freighter lurched again with another explosion. "Those are laser blasts!" he said mostly to himself. He re-sealed Gosell's cargo-hold and ran back to the cockpit. Thera was right; something was amiss after all.

"Give me a status, T3" he shouted as he vaulted into his pilot station. Target lock warnings sounded as T3's readout fed across his data screen. The ship lurched again; Peri hit his funny bone on the arm rest –I knew I should have had those things padded! – as he began scanning T3's data feed. Three rust-colored swoops had taken position near them just after he'd left to check on the airlock, and began firing heavy weapons at the freighter. T3 had shields raised the moment they came onto the scanner and appeared to be holding for the moment, but were only at twenty-eight percent of rated capacity.

Peri took the controls and began a barrel roll, then tried a few more random maneuvers that he knew his freighter could do. He couldn't see the swoops visually for longer than a few seconds this way, as they managed to stay on his tail, but he noticed the explosions had stopped. T3 chirped noisily, and Peri read his message. "Yes! I know! I know I should have listened the last time you recommended actually installing that fancy automated weapons system when I had the chance!" he barked back. "I was counting on maintaining a lower profile so as to not need them!"

Peri attempted to sharply change direction, bringing two of the swoops into view. He noticed sparks and a magenta light waving around the forward most swoop, followed by its cockpit exploding. The light waved again as it swept across onto the other swoop and disappeared into the fuselage leaving sparks and smoke from where it disappeared. That had to be Thera; that was her lightsaber blade's color, he remembered. He dared to move closer for a better look as the second now damaged swoop began descending. The hull lurched again with an explosion, which meant the remaining swoop was capitalizing on the turn of events, still staying out of sight.

He could make out Thera's form on the damaged swoop. She leapt from the swoop directly toward Peri's freighter and disappeared from view of the cockpit, but he heard her impact somewhere nearby. Another explosion sounded, but this time his freighter didn't lurch, and his target lock warnings were clear. He throttled down on his speed and slowly descended toward his destination, since the whole encounter had not forced them much off course. That bounty on Thera couldn't have found its way away from Mandalore so quickly, could it...? Were we tracked? thought Peri. "Best to be cautious," he began thinking aloud. "T3, as soon as we land, scan the ship's hull for tracking beacons."

T3 chirped an affirmative.