Star Wars: The Padawan Menace

Riq Thorne

"Go, go, go!" Lana yells, yanking Riq's arm. She yells, "Asher, come on!" There's a metallic CLANG! and Asher's foot appears in a hole at the bottom of the air duct. He jumps down and out, shoots at the Emperor a couple of times and hits him in the arm. It won't do much damage, but it'll at least leave him with a scar. The three run out of the room and down the hall. Then come the sound of footsteps behind them. And blasterfire.

"Stormtroopers!" Riq yells, recognizing the sound of the uniform's boot's footfall.

"Maybe ten or so!" Lana shouts back, agreeing.

"Asher, run!" Riq orders. "Get out of here! Lana and I'll take them!"

Asher charges down the hallway and rounds a corner.

Lana and Riq whirl around to face fifteen Stormtroopers. Riq ignites his red-bladed lightsaber; Lana her violet-bladed.

"No heroics," Lana reminds her brother.

"We won't be able to make it out of this alive without heroics!" Riq reasons, deflecting three lasers at once with his lightsaber.

"Then I guess we'll just have to die, won't we?" Lana says sarcastically, shoving her lightsaber at a charging Stormtrooper and causing him to fall back and knock over another trooper. Both quickly recover and stand.

"Well, aren't you just a cheerful ray of sunshine!" Riq fires back.

"Okay," Lana says as she whirls, ducks, rolls, and then jumps to her feet. "Maybe you were right. It's time for heroics. Think fast!" In one fluid motion, Lana shoves the hilt of her lightsaber into Riq's hands. He takes it, and with two lightsabers in hand, Riq is able to move around and deflect things with ease. He's always fought better with two blades in two hands. It comes easily for him. That's when it happens. Lana steps in front of her brother protectively- completely weaponless- and in unison, all of the Stormtroopers aim at her and fire.

Riq screams, "No!"

The lasers never make contact. Lana closes her eyes and all of the lasers stop in midair, mere centimeters from Lana's face. They all hover there for a moment, as if in slow motion, and then they all fly back and hit each of their designated Stormtroopers smack in the sternum. All of them fall to the ground, unconscious.

"Run!" Lana cries, pulling her brother out of the hallway. She presses a finger to her ear. She has a transmitter contact with Asher! Riq sighs with relief and extinguishes both blades. He shoves one at his sister and she takes it absently. They skid to a stop and round a corner. "Okay!" Lana agrees to Asher through the transmitter. "Sure... turn left... right, no, left again!"

An alarm begins to sound throughout the hall, and Lana has to yell over it. "ASHER'S ON HIS DAD'S SHIP! THEY'RE WAITING FOR US RIGHT ABOVE THE BRIDGE BETWEEN THE SOUTHERN AND NORTHERN SIDES OF THE SHIP!"

Riq is breathless, which he finds completely unfair, because his sister isn't even winded. "THAT'S... HHH... GREAT!" He wheezes.

"THIS WAY!" Lana cries. She pulls Riq onto a tiny elevator platform at the end of a hall and the twins lean over, exhausted.

"Are we done running yet?" Riq asks in a whiny tone.

Lana gives him a playful glare. "You haven't gotten any less annoying in the past two months, that's for sure."

"If anything, shouldn't the Dark Side make me more annoying?" Riq reasons.

Lana shoves him and the elevator stops on the bridge. Darth Vader is standing there, his red lightsaber held out before him. "I've got you now," he says.

"Sounds a lot like something someone who's about to lose a battle would say," Lana says. She ignites her violet lightsaber when suddenly Riq steps forward.

His eyes are yellow. "My Lord!" He says. Riq hopes that Vader's not very good at sensing emotions through the Force. He watches as Lana drops the lightsaber, but through the window out of the corner of his eye, Riq spots a small, run-down BBY cruiser. Cheap, but it has four seats. Just enough for a pilot and three teenagers. The violet lightsaber will be a signal that they're ready to be picked up. The ship flies just above the bridge, out of sight. They'll be able to attach themselves to a loading dock in the ceiling just above Riq and Lana... Riq gives Vader a small bow.

"I have the girl, my Lord."

"Good..." Vader says. "Perhaps we can convert her."

Riq remembers how quickly it had taken Vader to convert him. Maybe three minutes, at most. All he'd done was make physical contact. If Vader got his beefy (non-existent, to be truthful. He only had one arm. The other was a droid arm) hands on Lana... well... Riq couldn't afford for the past two months to happen exactly the opposite as they already had, with Lana being the bad guy and him being the good guy.

"No," Riq says. "It would be easier to just kill her, Lord Vader."

Lana casts Riq a scornful glare. It might even be half-genuine.

"So be it," Vader says. "Destroy her. Immediately. Killing the weak ones is the start to the path of the Dark Side."

Riq raises his lightsaber over his head and Lana makes eye contact. Just by looking at each other the twins already have a plan in motion. Riq's eyes turn blue for a second, and that's the first part. Then he blinks. Once. Twice. On the third blink, the twins both jump and lunge at Vader, who, with plenty of Jedi experience in his teenage years, is half-anticipating the attack and slashes the air just above where Lana had been standing. She performs a perfect Jedi jump and... disappears into a hole that has suddenly appeared in the ceiling. Riq tries to jump after her, but is barely able to get a grip on the ledge.

"RIQ!" Asher's voice yells. He grabs Riq's arm and pulls him the rest of the way into the ship. Vader's lightsaber slices the air where Riq's legs had been hanging moments before. He would've been incapacitated.

The ship's bottom hatch closes and Zev Senesca flies off into space, staring in surprise at three teenagers lying, breathless, on the floor of his A-Wing. Two of them hold lightsabers. One is clutching what appears to be a pistol.

Most parents would freak out at the sight of their children with laser swords and powerful pistols. They would go ballistic and scream and dance around the room like chickens (or at least my mother would). But not Zev Senesca. He's an experienced pilot who knows his way around the universe. In fact, he's proud to see his son holding a pistol. It shows strength, courage, and stability in life.

Zev smiles, focusing his attention back on the endless vastness of space set out around him. He only says one thing: "Back so soon?"