Star Wars: Heir to the Sith (Part 3)

Chapter 41: The agonising deaths of thousands all due to her.

The Awakening lumbered on. As the seconds passed the radiation bombarding the shields fell off, and the alarms that wailed in response to the external environment of space soon fell silent as the danger ended.

The vessel was clear, and her shields still possessed enough integrity to keep the crew safe.

Princess Tayre leaned forward over her console and felt suddenly cold. All the pent up rage, the thirst for justice, the adrenaline, all of it that had kept her going had leached the strength from her.

She pitched forward, only saving herself from a fall by pinning herself to the console. In a dream like state, she moved her shaking fingers over the communications, seeking any information on what was was going on.

It was the screams she heard first. The tortured sounds of the crew of the Assassin, broadcasting across all frequencies.

And in that terrible chorus, she heard Sarn's voice as well, as captain of his vessel both pleading and threatening in the same breath, begging to be spared as his flesh seared.

"What have I done?" she whispered to herself in the darkness.

She moved her hand to mute the sounds, but her fingers didn't respond.

She couldn't do it. She couldn't simply switch them off and pretend it wasn't happening: the agonising deaths of thousands all due to her.

"Awakening? Captain Cody? Princess Tayre?" Captain Pina's voice broke from her comm in a direct broadcast, freeing her mind from its darkest pit.

"I-I'm here," she replied.

"Princess, you are clear of the radiation. We are going to the Assassin's aid. Turn off the ship's engines and divert all power to your shields. A shuttle is being dispatched now to bring you whatever help we can supply."

"Very well," she whispered. "Thank you."

"Princess?" Pina's voice was quieter, filled with concern. "Are you safe? Are you okay?"

She tried to hold back the sobs but when they came there was nothing she could do.

"No," she cried. "I am safe, but I'm not okay Captain. I'm not okay."

A few seconds passed in silence.

"Just stay safe princess. It won't be long now. And thank you. You saved my ship by your intervention."

She took a deep breath and found herself nodding to the empty room.

"Captain Pina, is there any news of my parents?"

A silence again.

"We have identified some of those in the escape pods from the Malevolent. So far your parents aren't amongst them. But the children are safe - those hostages Sarn took from Farsalt. If they are then it might be that they made it too. I'm sorry princess."

"Thank you Captain."

The communication changed to a junior officer who started to ask her various questions about the status of the Awakening and its crew, and she answered what she could through an enervating grief, her thoughts elsewhere as all the time the sounds of the burning men and women of the Assassin continued.

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