Star Wars: Heir to the Sith (Part 1) (#Wattys2018 shortlist)

Chapter 54: "Always good to have a wookie on your side!"

"That's a . . . a . . . a . . . Kuat-Morix engineering station," she noted.

"A mark 2," Lance confirmed. "I'm impressed."

The Nova dipped and Ella lost her footing. Lance slipped on to his side and Cor flapped her wings to steady herself.

The Imperial officer fell and rolled before stopping against a metal deck.

"Well a wookie can't fly this ship by himself," Ella shouted.

A frustrated roar came from the cockpit. Ella ran toward it, with Chip following.

She burst into the small triangular-shaped room and vaulted over the empty front seat on the wookie's right.

The white-haired creature turned to her sharply and started to growl.

"I don't speak wookie," Ella said. "But I can fly a ship."

Ella reached out and ran her hands over the controls. Altitude. Pressure. Magnetic compass. Velocity indicators and gravity detectors.

The Imperial officer was at her side. He shot her a look of despair.

"Can you really fly this?" he asked, his face a dreadful pale.

"Seems simple enough . . ." she muttered.

Sal growled at her side and turned to Chip, who had taken the seat behind her. The Nova dipped again, and Ella looked through the cockpit windows for the first time.

Mahon stood at the hangar door, his lightsaber glowing. Behind him were at least a hundred stormtroopers and the four man squad that was putting the final preparations on the cannon.

But her attention was called to something beyond them all, way back in the hangar itself.

A row of yellow containers lining the far wall.

Ella took the steering column and the Nova steadied.

"Shoot!" she said to the wookie.

Salpantor growled something that didn't seem too pleasant.

Ella reached over to his side and hammered her palm down on the heavy cannon control.

A sharp 'wap' sounded from the dashboard.

A twin blaze of two red blaster streaks raced from directly below the cockpit and hit the yellow containers.

The hangar was engulfed in a balloon of fire. The force of it sent the stormtroopers cartwheeling forward, some set alight. The four man squad was hurled to the ground, the heavy cannon a split second from firing toppling on its tripod.

But Ella's eyes only sought one man.

Mahon!

Lady Jish's murderer had been knocked to the ground by the force of the explosion.

He lay a hundred yards from Ella, lifting his head from the rock, his mutilated face etched in anger.

Ella's hands moved in a flurry over the dashboard. She reversed the Nova and at the same time angled the bow down, bringing the heavy cannon to bear on the Assayer.

"Shoot!" She screamed. Her anger consumed her. Tears burned from her eyes, misting her vision, confusing her senses. She imagined Jish's body, burning in the fire she had ignited.

And there her murderer lay. Weak. Defenceless.

The wookie hesitated.

"Shoot damn it! Shoot!" Ella screamed.