Light in Her Darkness

Chapter 3

Bilba crouched low in the shadows, idly chewing on her lower lip as she waited. The alley was cramped, and narrow and filled with enough refuse and other...things to make her exceptionally grateful to have a helmet that could filter out smell.

A nearby rustle drew her attention to a drunk who'd been sleeping against the far wall for the last few hours. She worried for a moment he was waking up and might do something stupid to give away her position, but he only mumbled to himself and rolled over.

Laughter from the street had her shifting focus back as a group of young people close to her own age wandered past.

A wistful sense of longing ran through her as she watched them go. Had things been different, that could have been her. No need for armor or pretending to be someone else, no fears or concerns about the future. No constant worry about trusting the wrong person.

She would have liked having friends.

Her legs were beginning to cramp again, so she carefully pushed to her feet, making sure to move slowly and stay in the shadows. The sun had gone down ages ago, leaving the street darkened but for a few pale pools of light from various businesses here and there. It made her job both harder and easier at the same time.

The door of the squat, non-descript building across the street hissed open and a man shuffled out. He was short with an average build and greasy gray hair tied back in a low ponytail.

Bilba's gut clenched with nerves. He headed off down the street and, after a deep breath and a few seconds lead time, she followed.

She could do this, she told herself firmly, as she fell in behind the man. She was keeping to the shadows just like her father had trained her, and leaving enough lead time that he would, hopefully, not hear her steps. She'd been trained by the best, and that meant she could absolutely do this.

The man turned down a side alley and Bilba hurried after him, hoping desperately he hadn't realized she was behind him and was now waiting for her She pressed against the wall, grateful the idiot had waited until dark to come out, and then carefully peeked around the corner.

Her target was halfway down the alley, hands in his pocket and head hunched down. Bilba forced herself to take another deep breath, stepped into the alley, pulled her blaster, aimed and fired.

The bolt hit the man square in his back, then spread to briefly outline him in blue. Sensors in her helmet adjusted to the sudden blast of light automatically, preserving her night vision and allowing her to see as her target crumpled to the ground.

Bilba gave herself a second to bask in the feeling of victory before she holstered her blaster, quickly strode forward and had a pair of stuncuffs on the man before the effects of the blast could wear off. She stood still for a few seconds after but heard no sounds outside the alley. Apparently, the upside of a seedy area like this was that the sound of blaster fire was so common no one gave much thought or notice to it.

Lucky her.

It was a few minutes before the man started to wake up and, once he did, she was able to haul him to his feet and have him at her ship and safely in a cell before he was lucid enough to do much more than mumble a few dire threats.

Really, the whole thing was rather...anticlimactic to be honest. Her father's tales of going after hardened criminals were always filled with tales of blaster fights and frantic chases across rooftops. Bilba's, to date, had mostly involved walking up to people and punching them, but she'd assumed she just wasn't going after the right sorts of people.

Maybe criminals had just gotten more boring since her father had done it?

She left the idiot screaming incoherently threats and made her way up to the flight deck. As she passed the door leading to the galley, the faintest hint of smoke caught her attention and she sighed in resignation.