Endeavor [Complete]

XVIII

"What? What do you mean he's not here?" Jiron asked, shocked.

"I was on a ship before, I could feel his presence, it's not here. It's a trap."

"Ava, Sith are known for being able to conceal their presence," Master Jiron cautioned.

"No, it's not like that. I can usually feel concealment, feel when something is hidden, even if I don't know what it is. I don't feel any Force user on this ship, not even a signature of a Force user."

"I trust your instincts Ava, but now what?"

"We leave! It's an ambush, why else would they bring us here!"

No sooner had Ava said these words than a swarm of Imperial soldiers came from all directions, filling the corridor, every blaster pointed at them. Ava didn't even realize that many people would fit on the ship.

Without warning, blaster fire echoed from all directions. Instinctively, Ava dove sideways into the hole they had cut.

"We can't get back in without them following us!" Ava said whilst rapidly deflecting the flurry of blaster bolts.

"We'll have to take that risk, open the door!" he shouted back, also vigorously fighting the storm of soldiers attacking them. As Ava reached for the control panel, a laser fried it.

"Um we have a problem!" Ava shouted. Jiron glanced over and saw the ruined control pad.

"Stang! Okay, new plan. Cornered like this, we have no chance of putting our sabers down long enough to cut through, so we need to escape into the ship, get the officers to follow us and circle back here, then cut the door open before they can catch up. If necessary, we defeat them, but I don't want it to come to that."

Ava nodded, then they both ducked away and down a corridor. Sure enough, the Imperials followed, blasters still ringing out. Panting, she ran around a corner. "How do we find our way back?" she gasped.

"Um, we get lucky?" he said "it's not that big a ship after all."

"And I thought it sounded like you had a well thought plan," Ava quipped.

"Yeah, well I'm good at that."

"Good at making well thought plans, or making people think you have well thought plans?"

"No comment," Jiron said, smiling slightly.

More shots rang out, scorching the walls to Ava's right. She saw the troops round the corner as the darted down the corridor.

"Come on, this way feels right," she said, and glanced up for a moment looking for some kind of landmark.

The second of lost focus cost her dearly. Intense pain shot through her side. She was hit! She gasped and fell to the ground. Agony coursed through her body. She screamed. She had been hit with training lasers before, but it was nothing compared to this.

Her vision was blurred, every movement painful. Master Jiron lifted her with the Force, picked her up and ran down the corridor.

"Hang on Ava! We're almost out of here," Master Jiron whispered while running.

The pain of her wound and chaos of the Imperial soldiers firing all around them became too much, and she lost consciousness, her blurry, pained vision fading to black.

The first thing she was conscious of was a stabbing, burning pain in her side. She felt like she was rising up from the bottom of a deep pool as she opened her eyes. Bright light surrounded her, and she blinked, trying to adjust. Then, she recognized her location. She was in a medbay, lying in a bed. A feeble attempt to sit up sent pain shooting through her, so she remained in the same position.