Lone Territory || Episode 1 ||

[7] SEVEN //

Crawling through the spacecraft's frame seemed to be a good idea figuratively, actually navigating through the small crawl space was one of the worst ideas Orabelle ever thought of in her life. Her hands were every so often touch a live wire and shock herself, oxygen began to thin as she was sure that the ship had begun flight into space and her body hunched and cramped from the confined area.

She knew she had to get out before they use the hyperdrive or she'd be a fried Jedi.

In the cockpit, Anakin stands beside the ship's pilot, Ric Olie, pointing to various flashing buttons and controls that were used in flying the ship. Ric motioned for the young boy to put the ship into hyperdrive, however, nothing happened. "Hmm that's strange, Obi-Wan was sure he fixed the hyperdrive." The pilot murmured to himself.

Anakin noticed the infrared scanners alerting them that something was in the way and preventing them to even venture into hyperspace. Ric Olie caught the boys eye and followed them to where the scanner was, "You're a smart kid, somethings obstructing the connections." The pilot began commuting in his commlink, "Qui-Gon, there seems to be an obstruction preventing us from going into hyperspace. Judging by these sectors it's just by you near the Queen's Chambers."

There was a beat of silence before a reply, "Obi-Wan is on his way to check it out."

Back down in the crawl space, young Orabelle wiped a drop of sweat from her forehead, the engine was surely overheating. She once again zapped her hands but they weren't enough to deter her from continuing on ahead. Footsteps thudded on top of her, she froze and remained silent, even holding her breath as she heard voices muffled through the ship's floor.

Her heart raced a million beats per minute but slowed down once she heard the voices stop and the footsteps cease. Letting a breath of relief, she continued forward. Only she froze once more once she saw the panel just 4 bars ahead of her peel off. There was nowhere for her to go, she couldn't hide or run.

Her breath hitched in her throat even more upon seeing her brother's head peer through the hole. Goodbye, everyone, it was nice knowing you. She thought.

"Orabelle?" Obi-Wan's voice was confused, he wasn't entirely sure she was actually there, but when she sighed in defeat and crawled over to him and hauled herself through the floor and sat beside him he actually accepted that she defied the Council to join them. He grew worried about what would become of her when the council found out she was missing.

Qui-Gon was out of sight but he was coming to the sound of the commotion, much to his surprise Orabelle was on board with them and there was no turning back now. "It's a wonder we didn't sense her. She must have slipped passed the guards." Qui-Gon didn't bother with salutations, and there was no need to scold the young girl for wanting to help as she would get an earful upon her return back to Coruscant.

"Surely the council will be furious when they find out she's missing-."

"What will become of your sister is unknown my young padawan, the main thing is that she's with us here. The council can't punish the girl for simply wanting to help." Qui-Gon interrupted Obi-Wan. The girl just sat coyly and avoided their gaze, now the two older Jedi were sitting and speculating how she actually executed her escape. "How did you slip past the guards?" Obi-Wan questioned, his eyebrow raised in astonishment at his sister.

Orabelle smiled coyly, she was proud but in a time like this, she didn't want to tell them, although she knew that they'd find out sooner or later. "I saw Qui-Gon do it all the time, I thought I'd try and trick the guard... It didn't work at first but then it did." Expecting to see scornful faces, Orabelle was surprised to see the two Jedi smiling, impressed.

"Did you know it took your brother years to even get force manipulation perfected, even now he's still a bit rusty." Qui-Gon smiled, ruffling her hair as she smiled. "Only two years!" Obi-Wan defended, which in turn made Orabelle erupt into giggles. She quietened once she noted the serious look on Qui-Gon's face.

 "Bella, you have to promise me one thing..." he trailed off and waited for her to nod. "..This mission is very dangerous, I won't have you exposed, especially if the sith lord is there. Let Obi-Wan and I handle it, I want you to stay with Anakin."

"But Qui-Gon, you barely made out alive last time-."

"And neither did you, Bella, you're only young, having to battle a sith lord isn't something we train you to do until you're much older."

The girl looked down and away. Sensing that this was her understanding the weight of the situation, Qui-Gon helped her up and lead her to the cockpit where Anakin was. Although just like Orabelle's defiance against the order to help them before, Orabelle was already thinking of a plan to help. 

"Orabelle I mean it," Qui-Gon warned as he could sense her thoughts already. He wanted her to stay put, as that would be the way she helped the Jedi complete their mission.

Like hell she would sit around and do nothing.