LONELY STARS | A Star Wars Story

S I X

"Let's check it out." Rela suggests.
We both take out our small blasters and head towards the Imperial Hangar.
Once we get within range, I tell BD to trail behind. I don't want him getting shot at.
Rela and I duck behind more crates. Are ponchos the only things in these crates? Maybe there's a weapon. I slowly stand up and look at the crates. They are fairly large. I press the buttons on the console of the crate, and it immediately starts to open. But, the sound it makes when it's open is very loud. It's metal grinding against metal. Someone twenty feet away could hear it. As if it was our lucky day, the only people twenty feet away were the stormtroopers. They were standing in front of a door, possibly the one leading to the cells. The scout instantly turns in my direction.
"HANDS UP!" He yells. "Put your hands up! Step away from the crate!" His voice is commanding and confident.
I put them up for a split second, blaster still in my hand.
"Drop the blaster!"
"Drop- this?" I point it at him and shoot. It's a perfect headshot. The other troopers start shooting. I duck down again, as Rela says "nice going."
She takes her blaster and shoots down three of the troopers. She's a good shot. I poke my head up, and blast the other. The captain is left. He has an orange patch around his shoulder, signifying his power. He looks ready for a fight.
     "Get under the crate," I tell Rela.
     "You're crazy."
     I stare at her. "You have to trust me."
     She does as I tell her, but she keeps mumbling "crazy wizard."
     I can hear the Captain loading his blaster. He's running towards us. He's ten feet away. Five. Two feet. I leap out from behind the crate, and he shoots. It skims past my waist. I run up to him, and grab my hands around his blaster. He tries to pull it back, and let me say this: he was strong. He used his knee, and kicked me in my ribs. I fell to the ground. The pain was unbearable- it felt just like I had been stabbed in the stomach. And I know what that feels like. (You don't want to know.) He towers over me, and aims his blaster at me. In a last attempt to defend myself, I raise my hand towards him. A force pushes him to the floor, and I grab my blaster. I shoot at him before he can stand back up.
     "That was the last one," I say, out of breath. Rela climbs out from under the crate.
"Um, ok. I didn't see that coming."
"Let's just find your friend," I say, patting her shoulder. She touches her shoulder in awe, like she thought it would make her fly through the air.

"The door's locked. Now what?" I ask Rela, smacking the door in frustration. It did lead to the cells, I could feel it, but it was another cutback. Locked Imperial doors are tough to open.
Rela fumbles in her belt. She grabs a proximity bomb. Proximity bombs can act as a magnet, and can stick to surfaces. They're really effective on walls, but I'm not sure they'll work on Imperial doors. She places it on the door, and presses the gray button in the middle of the bomb. It flashes red, and starts a countdown. Next, she grabs my arm, and we go back behind the crates.
     "Seriously, Rela?" I ask. "There's no way that bomb is going to-"
     It explodes, and the blast shoves Rela and I to the ground. Pieces of the door fly everywhere, and we have to dodge being impaled by some of the big chunks.
     "It worked," she laughs, dusting herself off. "I made some modifications." She hops up, and holds her hand out to help me up. I scowl at her and then take it, as I remark: "didn't see that coming."

The hole it blew in that door is huge. At least bigger than I thought it would be.
Rela and I walked through the opening, coughing from the smoke. We heard growls and cries of help coming from cells that were around us. Most, I'd guess, were not human creatures, judging from that I couldn't hear a single word that we'd understand. I heard Wookie, maybe some Ewok, and a lot more I couldn't make out.
"All right, who knows Utap Keeda?" Rela asks.
     Utap must've been the man she talked to on her comm. I look around at the prisoners, trying to see a reaction, but there was none. "Wait. Over here!" Rela yells. I run to the opposite side of the room, where she stands waiting at one of the cells.
     Did I mention the cells were pretty much underground? The cell bars we could look through went from the floor up to our thighs. I kneeled down to look at the prisoner, and they were in the corner, holding themselves tightly, that I couldn't see their face.
     They rocked back and fourth, humming a tune I was unfamiliar with.
     Rela asks, "I thought maybe they were the one. But maybe I was wrong-"
     "No," I say. I sense something. "They are the one."
     "How do you know?"
     "I just do."

     I open the cell door, and the prisoner still does nothing. I carefully walk down the few steps to get to the floor of the cell. I close the door behind me.
     "Do you know Utap Keeda?" I ask again.
     "I-I do," the prisoner answers, voice shaky.
     "Well, wonderful. We can take you back to him."
     It's silent, except for the soft cries of the other prisoners.
     I walk up slowly to them. "Did- did you hear me?"
     They quickly bend down and pull my foot up. I slam onto the ground, and the pain in my rib shoots back into me. I groan, but the prisoner tries to reach for the blaster in my holster belt. By now I can tell it's a man, maybe in his twenties. His black hair was ruffled, and he had blood all over his face.
     I roll over and quickly stand back up, but so does he. Rela tries to get back into the cell, but the doors stopped working. Perfect, just perfect. At least Rela can stand there doing nothing and watch me die painfully.
     I grab my blaster, and aim it at him.
     "We're trying to help you!" I yell at him.
     "Utap wants to kill me! Why would I ever want to see him again?"
      "What do you mean he-" the man grabs the blaster out of my hand, an swiftly aims it at me. I put my hands up. "Hey! Hey! We can work something out, I'm sure," I assure him.
     "I don't think so," Rela is fired up. "Once you get out of that cage, buddy, I'll beat you so hard you won't remember your name!" Rela jumps up and down, ready to throw a punch.
     "Well that makes me want to negotiate with you even more!" The man nervously laughs. "How 'bout I just shoot you, then I get out, and shoot you?" He points to me and then Rela. "Then I can get out of here!"
     "There will be no shooting," I tell him.
    The prison cell door opens, and a blue light flashes around him. He falls to the floor. I turn back towards the door and see Rela with an Imperial blaster.
     "Set to stun," she says. "Easy peasy. I don't know why it took you so long,"
     She is pretty smart, for a smuggler.

     "Why didn't you use your sniper rifle?" I ask her.
     She simply looks at me and smirks. "Where's the fun in that? I wanted some action."