Star Wars: On the Job

Chapter 5: Emergency

The freighter's wall panels were dingy and gray from time and neglect. Worn-out metal grating clanged under Kanan's feet as he followed the curved passageway, far too long for this kind of ship. To either side passed closed doors, sealed and silent. He glanced at their controls, but didn't stop. He had to hurry, but he couldn't remember why.

Finally he came to a bulkhead scorched and scraped with blaster-burns and footprints. On the other side, music pulsed with a heavy bass. But behind him the passageway was silent. Or was it? He strained his ear. The noise was faint, but unmistakable: the stamp of boots in formation, growing closer with every beat.

Kanan hit the control and disappeared behind the door into a crowded cantina. Dim lights swallowed him up with the press of bodies, glowing yellow and pink in the haze of sweat and smoke. A cornucopia of species jammed together in the wide space, some dancing casually to the music, others holding brightly colored cocktails and thick-handled mugs of ale. Kanan wove between them as he dodges legs, arms and tendrils. He had to keep moving.

Finally reaching the far side of the room, he leaned against the wall and wiped the sweat from his forehead. No one paid him any attention as he looked back on the crowd. Over the bobbing heads he could see two Theelin females on a narrow stage. Their spots flashed under the lights as they swayed to the music. Kanan glanced once towards the door and saw that it was still closed. He cocked a smile.

A serving droid rolled by and Kanan snatched an ale from its tray, turning his back before it could try to charge him. No sooner had he taken a long swig than his eyes passed over the booths lining the walls, searching for a place to invite the Theelins back to. Most tables were packed with partiers clicking away in their native languages or laughing in great, whooping guffaws. But the first one– the one closest to him– was empty. Keeping one eye on the dancers, Kanan sidled up to the edge and looked down. The ale mug slipped from his fingers and shattered against the floor.

A woman was slumped against the table, face-down. A rough-woven cloak draped over her shoulders and two black loops of braided hair reflected the pulses of light. He reached out for her shoulder, but no sooner had his fingers brushed the coarse fabric than he jerked them back, stumbling away and slipping on the spilled beer. A hand dropped onto his shoulder and Kanan jumped away. When he spun around, it was to face a hammer-headed Ithorian offering him another ale, smiles plastered across his twin mouths. Tongue petrified in his throat, Kanan could only shake his head jerkily from side to side as he backed away.

That was when he heard it again: the marching of boots drawing ever closer. His eyes grazed over the motionless woman slumped over on the dirty cantina table, past the smiling Ithorian pushing the heavy glass at him again, back to the closed door where the clank of armor was almost as loud as the music.

Kanan bolted. He pushed past the Ithorian and turned in a full circle, searching for a glimmer of light that would indicate another exit. What he found instead was that the walls of the cantina had become great, arching windows, stretching up into a dome like a cathedral. The star-punctured blackness of space gaped beyond the glassteel, marred by a triangular shape looming large overhead like a hawk watching a rabbit hole. Before Kanan's eyes, flashes of red and green fire arched down towards the windows. The cantina shook, the patrons stumbled and then continued on like before. No one spared the Star Destroyer so much as a glance.

The sky light up again and floor rocked under another barrage from the Imperial turbo lasers. This time Kanan was knocked to one knee. As he picked himself up off the dirty floor he caught a flash of green in the crowd. Someone in there was moving fast through the tightly pack bodies towards the windows.

Just then the windows flashed white-yellow. The cantina shook violently and Kanan turned away to keep from being blinded. When he opened his eyes he was facing the woman on the table again. This time he noticed the pool of dark blood gathered beneath her feet. It was only when the door burst open that Kanan was able to tear his eyes away from the thick, stagnant liquid.