The lock exploded in a cloud of black smoke and the door slid open with a loud 'hiss.'
Secretary Dalian emerged with a triumphant look on his usually static face.
"You made the right choice, princess," he said. "The only way for any ship to get passed that Star Destroyer is if we incapacitate it. Farsalt's ion cannon can do that, but we'll have to seize it back from Sarn's men first. And to do that, we'll need to get control of my office."
"Wait!" Lance Dare commanded. He levelled his blaster at Dalian. "Explain. What was Governor Mazier up to? And why did you help him?"
Dalian looked at the rest of his staff who were emerging from other cells that had been unlocked. He gave them a derisive look.
"They know nothing of it. It was Mazier and me, alone. Mazier had grown tired of the Empire. He believed it had become far too extreme to govern, that it was inspiring revolution rather than providing security. I imagine it all started with his son, a TIE pilot who was killed in some pointless cause. King Garrand told me that he snapped and murdered Admiral Karion after the officer ordered his arrest."
"And you?"
"Money. And survival." Dalian shrugged. "As Mazier's deputy I was needed to audit many of his reports and accounts. He simply couldn't have committed the fraud he did without me. On ship A the ledger said we allowed two-hundred refugees in, in reality it was more. Ship B's cargo manifest described an import of five hundred cooking units, in reality they were portable power generators. An off-world transport would detail a hundred sick patients, whereas a hundred fit fighters would leave for the rebellion. And so on." He smiled. "All very simple really."
"And profitable for you too, no doubt?"
"Indeed. But my price was a bargain for the gains made. As I will prove to you very shortly. If I can gain control of my office, then I should be able to access Sarn's communications. I doubt they have deemed it necessary to change my access codes after locking me in prison. Come on!"
A scream sounded from the next cell. It was the young man.
"There's no time. We have to take back my office. Leave him!" Dalian said, rushing away.
"No!" Ella snarled. "If we're fighting for anything it has to start with decency."
She ran forward, blew the lock aside and raised her weapon as the door slid open. The spherical droid turned toward her, hovering only a few inches from the youth's blanched and sweat-soaked face, frozen in mid-scream.
Ella squeezed the trigger, pouring two red lines of fire into its metallic surface.
The Interrogator droid burst into flame and crashed to the floor.
Its last act was to let out an electronic wheeze as it expired.
Ella glanced at the man. There was no visible injury on his body. He stood in a metallic stock, his wrists and neck restrained. Ella slid the bolt across and heaved open the top of the stock with a grunt of effort.
The young man staggered out, groaning and taking deep laboured breaths.
"You're free," she said. "Get out of here and hide. Whether you like it or not you are no longer a part of the Empire."
Ella left the room to find Cor waiting, with Chip at her side.
"I am taking Chip to the ward," Cor said. "I don't think the stormtroopers will have bothered with the hospital. It's hardly an area of strategic importance to them." She patted the cyborg's arm gently. "Hopefully I can find the right equipment to remove this ghastly restrainer. Here."
Cor handed Ella one of the fallen stormtroopers communicators.
"It's on an open frequency so the Empire can hear us. Lance is one. I'm two. You're three. Dalian four. The ion cannon is referred to as prize and when we get Sal on the comm Lance is going to guide him in. We can get off Farsalt together–"
"Off Farsalt?" Ella repeated. "I can't. My family are here. My parents. I can't leave them Cor."
She fell silent.
"I understand," Cor said. "I will find my way to the hospital. But Ella," she reached out and took her hand in her claw. "May the Force be with you."
"Thank you, Cor. And with you."
The young man appeared in the doorway behind Ella, his eyes glazed. He looked at her in silent wonder.
"You know the way to the hospital?" she asked him.
"Y-yes . . ." he mumbled.
"Take Cor up there by the back stairwell. It's only two flights above us. See she gets what she needs. Then hide."
Ella took off at a run, following in the footsteps of Lance and the group of thirty-strong prisoners who had decided to aid him. It was an odd mix of junior security personnel at the palace, Governor Mazier's old staff who had decided against following Dalian, and other Farsalt inhabitants who had simply been rounded up.
Lance slowed as they left the prison complex and moved up the steps that led to a wide corridor. Ella caught him up.
"Dalian's gone up the rear stair with ten men," Lance told her. "But where do we go from here? I haven't spent any time in the palace."
"Right will take us back to the auditorium. Left, and up the stairs, will take us to the palace guard rooms," she said. "We'll find weapons up there and a communicator for you to broadcast to Sal. If you're going to get him to fly in, then he'll need a safe place to land. I suggest Pinnacle Rock. A ship can make its approach down the dried riverbed below it, undetected." She saw Lance's interested expression. "It's so deep the bottom is always in darkness. I often used that route when I used to sneak in and out of the palace on my speeder. Tell Sal that he can land just beyond Pinnacle Rock near the waterfalls. You can get there easily enough from the palace."
"'You?'" he said. "You mean 'we'. You're coming with us."
"I don't know Lance. There's a lot for me here–"
"Ella, look at me. The Empire is here now. In force. I've seen this before. They won't just go away. And we can't fight them like this."
"But my family–"
"Will be dead. Or sent off world as hostages." He closed his eyes and took a breath. Then he moved in closer to her as she struggled to accept the horrifying truth of his words. "Ella, I'm going to come clean with you. I work for the Alliance. I have done for some years. I am the Alliance ambassador for Farsalt. I've visited this planet a dozen times, keeping a low profile and hiding out of the way." He put his hand on her shoulder. "I know you know nothing of me, but I know a bit about you. You are described as a 'person of special importance.' King Garrand expressly asked us to put that in an agreement he made with us five years ago - if the Empire should come to Farsalt, you are to be taken off. Only the most senior people on Farsalt, and a few select others, know about that order."
"Why me? Why all these lies to protect me?"
"You said it yourself," he stared into her eyes and mouthed a single world. "Jedi."
"Is that really true?" she gasped.
"I don't honestly know," he said. "But they did exist barely a generation ago. They did have abilities. And I have heard stories from across the galaxy of whole communities being destroyed because of only the faintest link to that word. Mere rumour alone was enough to bring the Empire down upon them. So whether there is any truth to it or not, then you are still in great danger." He looked over his shoulder in the direction of the corridor.
"Now, which way do we go? Right or left?"
"Left. To the guard rooms," she answered. "The weapons."
"And then we go, off Farsalt, together?" Lance asked. "Agreed?"
But Ella remained silent. Lance sighed.
"Very well, we'll discuss that later," he said. "Let's get on with it."
They stepped into the corridor together when their communicators erupted.
"I've got a problem here!" Cor yelled. "It's–"
The sound of a blaster bolt followed by Cor's scream carried over the airwaves. Then a 'hiss' that Ella had never heard before, but was not too dissimilar to one of the electrostaffs that she and Jish had often trained with.
And then silence.
"Cor?" Lance screamed. "Cor?"
But there was no answer.
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