Narrow Escape
(Star Wars Universe)


"This is Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. I regret to report that both our Jedi Order and the Republic have fallen, with the dark shadow of the Empire rising to take their place. This message is a warning and a reminder for any surviving Jedi: trust in the Force. Do not return to the Temple. That time has passed, and our future is uncertain. Avoid Coruscant. Avoid detection. Be secret... but be strong. We will each be challenged: our trust, our faith, our friendships. But we must persevere and, in time, I believe a new hope will emerge. May the Force be with you, always."

Obi-Wan Kenobi's warning: Star Wars Rebels


It had been a running gunfight all the way from the administrative level of the spaceport orbiting Ord Mantel.

Blaster fire spattered all around them as Ryan and Esposito half-carried Beckett while they fled back across the spaceport with Stormtroopers hot on their heels. She had taken a stun bolt from a blaster meant for Alexis, and Castle could almost feel his daughter fretting as she fussed over Kate, who had also taken a blow to the head when she'd fallen. Every groan Kate made caused Alexis to flinch as she applied the medpacks on the run.

They rounded the corner to the landing bay where Mandalore's Glory was waiting for them, to be met by two full squads of Stormtroopers flanking a humanoid figure dressed in grey and black. Castle had heard tell of these "Inquisitors" recruited from the younger, more impressionable survivors of the Jedi purge by Lord Darth Vader himself to do Emperor Palpatine's bidding.

"Listen to me, all of you," the Inquisitor offered smoothly, "all I want is the girl. Give her to me and we will let the rest of you go."

"That's not gonna happen," Esposito shouted. He'd served during the clone wars. Turning young girls over to some dictatorial Emperor was not the cause he'd bled for.

"Your captain is wounded," the Inquisitor stated calmly. "My troops and I stand between you and your only means of escape from this system. You are hardly in the best bargaining position."

"He's right, Espo," Ryan muttered, looking defeated, "I hate it, but that jackhole has us cold."

Castle closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath.

"Take Kate and Alexis, circle around to the other walkway and get to the ship," Castle stated as he opened his eyes, an almost inhuman calm descending over him. "I'll deal with our new friends."

"With what?" Esposito huffed, gripping his blaster carbine tightly. "Harsh language?"

"Leave that to me," Castle replied as he began removing components from his belt and pockets, his hands assembling a cylindrical device almost of their own accord. "A force-sensitive teenage girl is about to become the least of their problems."

"Castle, you're a damn fool," Esposito spat back.

"Who is more foolish?" Castle replied. "The fool, or the fool who argues with him?"

Before anyone could reply, Castle strode out across the walkway mimicking his usual swagger.

"Excuse me, sir," Castle stated clearly but calmly, "I believe we have not been properly introduced."

"Oh?" the Inquisitor replied, mildly perplexed.

"This is the part of the conversation," Castle offered, "where I ask what your intentions are with my daughter and then scare the crap out of you."

With barely a twitch of his left index finger, the troopers blocking his path on the walkway were swept over the side to fall screaming into the clouds below. The Inquisitor was about to learn the truth about his past. A truth he'd kept from nearly everyone, even his daughter. Only Kate knew, and she'd found out by chance.

Before the dark times, before the Empire, he had once been Ri-Quan Castillion, Master of the Jedi Order.

The Inquisitor did a very convincing job of looking unimpressed at such a vulgar display of force mastery, but Castle could clearly read the indecision coming off of him through the force.

"Fear," Castle noted to himself, remembering Yoda's teachings from his childhood long ago. "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger then to hate, then to suffering."

"You might be competent to hunt down half-trained padawans and force-sensitive children," Rick noted casually, using the same calm but authoritative tone he had once employed with the older students he'd trained at the temple, "but you may be a little out of your depth. Perhaps you should run along and call for Lord Vader."

"Open fire!" The inquisitor barked, in a high pitched squeak. "Enforce General Order Sixty-Six."

Almost the same instant the inquisitor barked his order, Castle twitched his left index finger again and the remaining Stormtroopers were flung over the side of the landing pad as he ignited his lightsaber, saluted smartly with the humming yellow blade and brought it to guard position.

The white armored soldiers so closely resembled the clone troopers his wife had led into battle who had summarily cut her down in a hail of blaster fire in that dark time he could almost taste it. He could feel the dark side tugging at him… whispering into his soul.

The Jedi betrayed you.

They didn't believe you.

They cast you out of the council.

Give in to your anger…

Your hate can make you powerful

Castle shunted those feelings aside as the black and gray clad Imperial agent ignited the dual blades of his own weapon and activated the mechanism that set them spinning.

Castle had expected the move and allowed the Inquisitor to press him back toward the walkway. He could sense Alexis and the others slipping around behind the Imperial toward the Glory's main ramp. He only had to keep the agent occupied for a few moments.

"The boy isn't too bad." He thought to himself as he blocked or smoothly evaded the Inquisitor's spinning blades, "over-dependent on his toy, perhaps but otherwise reasonably skilled. Whoever trained him was no Master Yoda, but was at least competently versed in lightsaber combat."

He couldn't quite place the style the boy was using, however. He'd sparred with Master Windu enough to recognize and defend against the Sith style of Djem So. The boy was aggressive, yes, but this clearly wasn't it. He was making small, but critical errors that few would take note of, but someone who had trained young apprentices in lightsaber combat for nearly a decade.

"Wrong," Castle stated evenly as he deftly evaded the Inquisitors initial attack, "Footwork."

He could feel the anger roiling off of the Imperial as he came on again, more aggressively than before.

"Wrong," Castle scolded again as he effortlessly deflected one blade then slipped around the other. "Lack of follow-through."

He continued the string of calm, even toned training rebukes of the boy's stance and technique as he fell back along the walkway.

"You can't win, Jedi," the inquisitor growled angrily, "eventually, I will cut you down, and then the girl will be mine."

Castle knew the the Imperial agent had a point, even in his self-deluded bluster. It was only a matter of time before more troopers showed up. If it was going to happen, it needed to happen soon. But the Imperial agent didn't need to know he knew that.

"You're going to have to do better than this, youngling," Castle chastised, "over-reliance on your fancy, tricked-out toy won't make up for sub-par technique."

Before the Inquisitor could reply, Castle heard the distinctive whine of the Glory's main engines firing up and almost instantly changed tactics.

His stance shifted and his expression hardened as he switched styles to Master Windu's modified Djem So and moved from defense to attack.

His first strike severed the mechanism that made the Inquisitor's blades spin.

"Lesson the first," Castle spat darkly, "fancy, over-engineered toys are no replacement for skill."

His second strike cut low through the boys meager defense and the lower blade of his weapon sputtered out.

"Lesson the second," Castle hissed, as the Inquisitor continued to fall back, stunned at the sudden turn of events, "overconfidence is a weakness."

His third strike cut away the boy's blade, and the hand holding it and Castle kicked him to his knees.

"Lesson the third," he hissed, "Never mess with papa bear."

With a single downward stroke of his blade, he severed the Inquisitor's head from his neck and kicked what was left of his fancy weapon over the side as he strode toward Mandalore's Glory's ramp.

"Thus endeth the lesson."

Revenge was not the Jedi way, but Castle had long ago turned his back on the order. Not because the order had given up on him, but because ever since she'd been born, Alexis had been all that mattered. The Clone War had taken everything else.


The boarding ramp and pressure-door hissed closed behind him as Castle stepped into the main cabin of Madalore's Glory, a modified passenger variant of the Corellian YT-1300 light stock frieghter. Both Ryan and Esposito were stunned by the revelation of his Jedi skills. Esposito had witnessed firsthand what an Inquisitor was capable of.

"I'm actually surprised you waited for me," Castle muttered.

"We thought about it," Esposito shot back, while Ryan was busy tending to Kate's injuries. "But the acting captain locked herself in the cockpit and refused to let us leave without you."

Before Castle could come up with a suitable retort, the door to the Glory's cockpit opened to reveal Alexis Castle. Her arms slowly crossed over her chest and a single ginger eyebrow arched.

Apparently, Richard Castle had some explaining to do.


Author's note: This is the first installment of a series of vignettes featuring Caskett in various scifi/fantasy universes. Next up will be a Star Trek vignette based upon the opening scene of Wrath of Khan.