Star Wars: Heir to the Sith (Part 3)

Chapter 28: She would enjoy breaking him down.

They had reached the power plant level on the station, and Ella was experiencing a new reality over which she had no control. Since she had somehow slowed the descent of the falling droid and saved Cor's life, she felt her surroundings. Wherever her gaze fell she had a tactile sense of the material that faced her, gauging its strength and shape, feeling its weaknesses, knowing its smell and its temperature.

A door slid open and Ella perceived a slick of grease in the groove. She knew it had been applied within the last few days, for she knew the mechanism on the door was faulty. The molecules themselves communicated that to her, the single celled bacteria that coated every surface, despite the routine decontamination efforts, whispered it to her in her unconscious mind.

She had no control over it either. No way to focus it or to turn it off.

And as she passed through the door and across the junction beyond, it nearly killed her.

"Ella!"

She wasn't sure who shouted her name, but the force of the words and the concern with which they were screamed brought her back immediately.

Just as the blaster bolt struck the wall a foot above her head, showering her with blistering heat and tiny molten fragments.

She crouched instantly and jumped behind the nearest cover, and already blaster fire was being exchanged. From behind her, several yards away and still in the doorway, Lance and Hal risked unsighted shots in the direction of the attackers.

"How many of them are there?" Lance yelled.

Ella readied her lightsaber and craned her head around the corner of the junction, risking a look.

Four stormtroopers, hidden behind the structural supports of the passageway.

And behind them, watching, was the figure in black.

Mahon.

"Four stormtroopers," she called across the junction which now seemed as wide as the distance between stars. "And Assayer Mahon too."

She noticed how the imperial fire continued in a regular pattern, creating a continuous stream that would make it impossible for her to cross the gap and reach her friends.

She heard the scuffle of booted feet as the troopers advanced cautiously, still firing to keep her on her side of the junction.

It was an obvious plan by Mahon to keep her on her own.

Cor knelt at Lance's side and risked a shot down the passage, but as soon as she pulled the trigger a blue ring zeroed into her chest and sent her pitching backwards in silence.

A stun shot!

Somehow that terrified Ella more. Being taken alive by Mahon, being restrained and interrogated . . .

Hal pulled the unconscious Cor out of the passageway and through the doorway.

Lance gave her a concerned look as another stun ring cascaded off the passage roof above him.

"Get out of here Ella. Just run! I'll hold them as long as I can."

She knew he was right. Mahon had them. And no doubt he was calling in other units to head them off.

She promised herself she would not be caught.

"Run Ella!" Lance shouted again, putting a single shot around the corner without looking.

A storm trooper gave a cry and fell. But the firing barely diminished.

She knew she had no choice. Lance was right.