War Child--Rogue One

XV

Chaos.

Well, as chaotic as four people can be.

Kai dives into the hole and I struggle to cover it. The metal keeps slipping from my fingers. Tenielle looks lost, standing still in the middle of the room.

Mother stands by the door, waiting for me to finish hiding him. Another powerful knock ricochets through the room. "Open up! Or we'll break the door down."

I give up. "I'm sorry, Kai."

He shakes his head, hides a blaster under his shirt, and launched back up, striding straight to the door and opening it.

Two snowtroopers, two stormtroopers, and a tightly bundled officer march in. "You are under arrest, by order of the Empire. Put your hands up," the officer tells us.

We do, even Tenielle, who's watching the officer's face steadily. He turns to her, and gives a nod. She relaxes and walks over.

I watch in disbelief as he hands her a bag of credits and kisses her briefly. I don't know how to react, honestly.

She opens the door and steps out, pulling her jacket around her neck. Tenielle turns around one last time before the door closes and gives me a half-hearted shrug, as if that is enough to apologize for this.

"Hands behind your head."

I clasp my fingers behind my head and look up.

Mother is whispering Chirrut's chant about the Force. It can't save us this time.

"Pat them down."

A stormtrooper finds my blaster and hands it to his partner while he continues to run his hands along my pants, checking for any more weapons. He moves on to Kai and finds the other blaster.

Mother has nothing.

The officer goes to stand in front of her. "Camellia Andor?"

"Yes."

"You are charged with rebellious intent, harboring a fugitive, and resisting Imperial law."

He moves on to me. "Cassian Andor, you are charged with rebellious intent, harboring a fugitive, resisting Imperial law, and carrying undeclared weapons."

I look straight into his eyes as he reads my crimes. I refuse to lose my pride. I already know I'm going to lose my life.

"Kai Olson. You are charged with petty theft, assault of an officer, destruction of Imperial property, resisting arrest, assaulting fellow prisoners, assaulting of another officer, and failure to turn self in."

The officer goes back to the safety of the snowtroopers. He nods to the stormtroopers, who go, one at a time, to cuff us, starting with Mother. I wince as they roughly pull her hands down to strap on the thick metal cuffs.

They do the same to me.

When they move on to Kai, he pulls the pocketknife I gave him out of his pocket and slices at the stormtrooper's armor, doing nothing really.  But they're stunned and he makes a break for the door.

The button doesn't seem to be working, and before he can open it, the officer whirls around and shoots him with my blaster.

"No!" I hear my own voice scream.

His body crumples to the ground.

The officer pockets my blaster again.  "He was going to be executed anyway," he says with a shrug.

I glance over at Mother, hoping she won't say anything. I don't want her to be shot too. She just closes her eyes and rocks a bit, mouthing something that I can't hear, but I am positive is "The Force is with me, I am one with the Force."

I hope she finds comfort in that. The Force can't save us now.

"Let's take them back. Officer Beckram can decide where we'll put them." The officer pulls up his collar, like Tenielle did a few minutes before, and steps over Kai to open the door. One stormtrooper grabs my arm and the other grabs Mother's.

One of the snowtroopers picks up Kai's body on the way out.