Shattered Empire (Star Wars fan fiction)

Part 4

"Hey, buddy! Wake up!"

Regan's eyes drifted open. Every nerve of his body was on fire with pain, from the blistering ache of his wounded shoulder to the electrode marks all over the rest of him. The last thing he remembered was the sonic shriek of the interrogation droid hovering hovering him, breaking his eardrums as it's two electrode arms thrust into his body delivering agonizing shocks. Now, above him he saw the taut face of the Imperial nurse who had greeted him on the first waking day in this hellhole.

"How long?", Regan asked.

"Three hours this time", she said. "Another session like that will kill you."

"Good", Regan grunted.

"Shutup!", the woman hissed.

Vacantly, Regan thought he felt a prick of pain in his already searing shoulder.

"They ordered me to take away the painkillers just before the first session", the woman said. "It's been a while, but you should be feeling better very shortly. Well enough to walk. Just don't ask me to give you any more of it, or you'll be an addict for life."

"What?", Regan asked bewildered.

"Just lay back and take it", the woman said sharply. "And keep your voice down!"

Still confused, Regan suddenly began to feel the pain beginning to recede. Looking over to his right, he saw that he was hooked up to a liquid tap that was pumping something into his body from a bag bearing rather ominous labels on it.

"What the hell are you doing?" he hissed.

"Saving your life", the woman said in reply. "Can you sit up?"

With a grunt, Regan tried raising himself on his left elbow. His right shoulder was still suspended in a mobile fixture, but to his surprise he found that he still had use of it below the elbow. Everything still hurt, but it was getting better by the minute. Whatever it was that the girl was pumping into his system, it was potent.

"Here", she said. "Here are some of your clothes. Get them on now!"

Regan felt the girls soft, sweaty palms take hold of him as the nurse helped him into a sitting position. A few minutes later and his pants and boots were back on, and his tattered officer's jacket draped over his shoulders.

"Come on!", the nurse whispered, taking Regan's arm in one hand and slinging a ruck over her other shoulder. "We're getting out of here!"

As two of them lurched through the medbay towards the open hatch of an access crawlway, Regan turned to look briefly at his companion.

"Say", he said. "In all this, I still don't know your name."

"Cayl", the girl replied. "Cayl Ryssla. Now former pharmacist's mate."

"Pleased to meet you, Cayl Ryssla", Regan replied with a grunt as the two of them squeezed awkwardly inside the crawlway.

*******

"So where are we?", Regan asked as he gazed out the canopy of the Lamda class shuttle.

"Kvorak System", Cayl replied as she gingerly peeled off Regan's jacket. The shuttle had been badly shot up when they took it out of the space station, and a nano-hyperspace jump later found them barely two dozen Astronomical Units from their previous position. "Previously platform XQ2-3490."

"Shouldn't take them long to find us", Regan replied.

"Hold still", Cayl replied in turn as she gently probed Regan's shoulder with her fingers. "The stims will be wearing off soon. I'm putting you back on conventional pain killers, but you'll have to take it easy for a while."

"No time", Regan grunted. The ship's systems were mostly shut down, even life support was set to minimal, and it was starting to get hot inside. With a rustle of cloth, Cayl unzipped the front of her jumpsuit and peeled it down to the level of her hips as she wiped a layer of sweat off her forehead. With an effort, Regan pulled his eyes away from the girl's chest beneath the sweat-soaked material of her support bra and refocused them on the star chart.

"Not a whole lot of places to pick from", he remarked. "We're pretty deep in Imperial space. Our best shot is to try and make it to the L'qor System, about a parsec from here. We've barely enough fuel to make it, but I think it's our only option."

"L'qor?", Cayl asked warily. "But there's a war going on there!"

"Exactly", Regan replied. "The natives are the folks around who won't instantly turn us over to the Empire. That is, assuming they don't shoot us down before we've even landed."

Abruptly, the proximity alert warbled on the control panel.

"Blast!", Regan barked.

"What is it?", asked Cayl

"Imperial Assault Gunboats", Regan replied. "Two of them, closing fast. I told you it wouldn't take them long to find us."

"What do we do?", Cayl started. Then she paused. "No wait", she said. "I have an idea! You sit tight and get the engines warmed up."

"What the...."

"Just get the engines online!", Cayl barked as she scrambled to her feet and started making her way to the cargo bay.

Inside the cargo bay, the bodies of two Imperial hangar technicians lay stretched out on the floor, their hands and feet bound with utility cables. They looked like they were still groggy from the effects of the stun blasts which had knocked them out initially, but Cayl wasn't about to take changes with. "Sorry gents", she said softly, as she dug a stolen SE-14 blaster pistol out of her waistband and leveled the muzzle at the two stricken men. Two flashes of blue light later, the men were once again out cold. Snatching both men's identity code cylinders, Cayl then grabbed one of them by the boots and started dragging him towards the nearest escape pod hatch, while all around her the ship started to hum as it's systems started coming online.