Chapter 7! I'm not going to bother with a long author's note this time. Please enjoy and remember to Favorite, Follow, and Review.
-W.P.
Metal screamed as the turbolift fell at breakneck speed. Jinn clung to the hand rail on the wall with one hand and the Twi'lek's hand with the other; keeping them both from crashing through the ceiling of the lift. Uadda reached for her lightsaber and slammed the blue blade through the ceiling and began cutting a slow circular hole. Suddenly, the lift bounced off of the shaft wall, knocking Uadda to one side before she could finish. Jinn did his best to hold tight to the rail but the force of the impact had ripped it from his grasp. He levitated quickly and bumped the glowing metal left by the blade of his friend's lightsaber. He howled in agony as the kiss of molten steel seared through his tunic and into the flesh of his shoulder.
Uadda was pinned to the ceiling across from him. He had to act fast. Flipping himself face up, he ignited his yellow blade and plunged it deep into the glowing scar. The metal was thick and was not easy to melt. His panic was growing while the distance to the bottom of the shaft shrank. There was a small pressure as Uadda reached out from her place on the ceiling with the force and helped push his lightsaber around. Finally with one last yank, the hole exploded open. Uadda grabbed Jinn's leg as he was sucked out of the elevator like a vacuum. He latched onto the resistance cable of the lift which was being yanked in the opposite direction.
The cable was still trying to climb and Jinn's hand was running out of skin as it was peeled from his body layer by layer. His scream of pain would have echoed if not for the explosion as the lift crash into the bottom of the shaft with a gout of bright orange flame. The heat wave washed over them moments before the cable finally slowed enough for Jinn's iron grip to find purchase. Quickly grasping the slow rising cable, he held on as best as he could while Uadda climbed higher to his waist. Eventually, the cable had lost its momentum and began a slow return descent. Uadda reached out with the force and pulled the pair toward a turbolift door on one side of the flame illuminated shaft. As they swung nearer, she tugged the doors open with the force once more and allowed them both to tumble onto the cold metal floor. They landed hard, but the near-frozen steel was a welcome comfort in comparison to the biting fire of pain and blood that was Jinn's left hand. His shouts of pain had devolved into intense, shaking growls through clenched teeth.
Uadda reached into her belt and retrieved a similar metal tube as the one Jinn had used to patch up her head earlier. Twisting the cap off she tore a bacta patch in half and dumped the medicated gel directly onto his hand. He groaned as the gel made contact with the gore of the open wound.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry Jinn, I'm sorry." She repeated, kneeling on his forearm to keep him from reflexively pulling away. "It'll be ok soon. I'm so sorry." His only reply was more cries of pain as the Bacta gel did very little as an analgesic.
"You shouldn't lie to your friend. Don't the Jedi frown upon blatant deception?" Cooed the voice over the com-system. Uadda ignored him. Jinn was her only focus as she held his arm down trying to bandage it with the remnants of the bacta patch, while he weakly tried to push her away. She knew it wasn't really him, but his body trying to protect itself and not knowing how.
"Well, it doesn't really matter. You're not going to live long enough to feel bad about it anyway." The voice continued its taunting. The com-system was shut off and a mass of figures shroud in black and red-trimmed jackets rounded the corner, blasters raised. There was no warning. Instead, they opened fire and Uadda was forced to abandon her field medic training to face the threat. Her blade exploded to life and reflected the blaster bolts away from her and Jinn. Many of them returned to the one who had initially fired them and the bodies fell like Quinto stalks in a field.
A bolt caught her in the hip and brought her to one knee, nearly causing her to miss the next incoming salvo. She managed all the same and spun back to her feet, using the momentum to emphasize the force push, shoving four of the soldiers to their backsides. This halted the onslaught of blaster fire just long enough for her to leap closer and eliminate much of the threat. A second blaster shot clipped her cheek and seared the flesh. The smell was nauseating but not enough to distract her. The Twi'lek spun again, removing at least three limbs from their bodies and force pulled Jinn's lightsaber from his belt. Activating it midflight, it sank into the chest of a Rodian who didn't have enough time to shout before falling to the floor. Pulling the blade free, Uadda became a blurring torrent of yellow and blue.
If she was injured, she didn't realize it. If she was tired, she didn't feel it. If she was scared... but of course she was scared. She had always been scared. Scared that if Jinn left on this mission alone, he might not come back. Scared that they would never find Master Tophta, who was not her master but a kind and generous man who cared for her all the same. Scared that Jinn had died in the crash that undoubtedly killed Thar, the cyborg smuggler who in just a matter of minutes made her feel welcome and important. Scared that they would die together at the bottom of a turbolift shaft and no one would ever know. And now, she was scared that if she failed, it would have all been for nothing.
The Jedi warned against the dangers of fear. They claimed it was a one-way trip to the dark side and banished any who failed to control it. The Sith felt otherwise, teaching that fear was the source of great power. And with that power they were unstoppable. But Uadda knew better. She was neither of those things. She was a Grey. Her fear was not a source of power but the drive for survival and the knowledge that survival meant she would see Jinn smile. See the tropics of Zonama Sekot again and banter about the weather.
That was all she needed to succeed. A flash of blue and another soldier fell. A flash of yellow, followed by a howl of pain. She deactivated both blades and pushed with everything she had, sending the remaining soldiers down the hall from whence they came and into the wall at its end. The bodies fell in a heap. She took a moment to catch her breath which was coming in heavy waves now. She steadied her breath and turned, running back to Jinn who was lying still on the floor.
"Jinn?" She croaked. Her voice was hoarse and for a moment, wondered if she'd been shouting. She checked the pulse in his neck. It was fast but slowing. He must have passed out from the pain.
Just then, an alarm sounded. She had to leave, and quickly. Lifting with her legs, she pulled Jinn across her back and held one leg and one arm on each side. He out-weighed her by more than she'd expected, but the adrenaline coursing through her helped to ignore the encumbrance. The Twi'lek dashed down the hall as quickly as she could and ducked into a door on the left. The room inside was dark aside from the dim red warning light that slowly illuminated the space and faded in rhythm with the alarm.
Looking around the room, Uadda spotted a computer terminal set into a desk. She gently set Jinn on the floor beside the door and rushed to the terminal. She powered it on and did her best to open a layout of the compound. She needed to know what floor they had landed on. Finding the file was simple enough, but opening it proved challenging. Like most of the files, the blueprints were encrypted and protected behind passcodes she didn't have. She needed help.
"AE? Are you there?" She asked quietly into her communicator. A short pause later, AE trilled in response.
"I need you to tell me where we are. I've accessed a terminal but can't get passed the security systems." Suddenly the terminal started acting on its own. The files shifted and closed, reopened to new locations and eventually, an access window appeared. The passcode was hidden but entered of its own accord all the same. Once it finished, the access window displayed "Granted" and vanished to make way for the now unlocked file behind it. The map of the compound glowed brightly on the display and a singular red dot flashed on the 46th floor. Only seven floors below the holding cells. AE beeped to signal a job completed.
"Thanks, AE. I owe you one. Now see if you can get a signal back to Zonama Sekot and let them know Master Tophta was captured. Jinn is severely injured, so I am going to hurry and try to find the cells and bring them both back to the surface." She explained. A hitch in her voice as she spoke. The emotions of the last few minutes were finally catching up with her. The droid trilled its acknowledgment and signed off.
Uadda hurried back to Jinn who was still unconscious where she'd left him. Replacing his lightsaber on the hook in his belt, she checked his injuries and made sure he wouldn't bleed out from any while she was away. He was a mess. A bruise on his head from the crash was blooming a sickly dark color and was sure to descend to a pair of black eyes in the next few days. His tunic was singed and some of the fibers had melted to his skin from where the hot metal had burned through it. She felt his torso and counted two broken ribs and at least one other cracked though it was hard to be sure. Luckily, his hand was the worst of it. He would need some serious medical attention and reconstructive work before he would be safe to use it again. In the meantime, the bacta gel had mixed with the exposed blood, turning a grotesque purple color that had leaked onto his clothing. She snatched a datapad from the desk and left a message for him should he wake before she came back.
Leaving the pad in his lap, she covered him in her cloak and left the room. The alarm was still blaring and the red warning lights cast a pink hue across the illuminated grey walls against the standard white lights. Having memorized the quickest route to the holding cells, Uadda ran as fast as her legs would allow. Rounding a corner that would lead to a new turbolift, she was faced with an incoming squad of compound guards. Blasters fired as soon as they realized her presence, this did not slow her in the least. Instead, Uadda charged forward, her blue blade whirling before her as a shield. As she approached, she sliced the barrels of the two forward guards and leaped over the remaining four. Landing gracefully, she pushed them all back the way she had come with the Force and darted around another corner.
Leaping up a small ladder well without need or use of the ladder itself, she landed on the upper level and rolled to one side to avoid another salvo of blaster bolts from the startled guards. Regaining her footing, she sped off down the new corridor straight toward the turbolift that had yet to open. Reaching the door, she slammed her fist into the call button and turned to defend against the guards that finally rounded the corner she had escaped behind. A mouser droid rolled between them and was the perfect distraction. Using the force, Uadda grabbed the small box droid and hurled it at the pair of guards, who instinctively stopped firing long enough to avoid being hit with the heavy cleaning droid.
That small reprieve gave Uadda just enough time to slip between the lift doors as they opened and quickly hit the button that would take her to the cells. Thankful the lift was empty; she took a moment to rest. Her throat was dry and stung from her labored breathing and her chest felt heavy. A few second later, the door opened again revealing a dimly lit, octagonal corridor. The floor was met with slanted walls set with doors angled down. The vaulted ceiling was set with two light strips and the floor was a wide oblong grated pattern of metal. Stading in the middle of it all, was a tall and grotesquely thin man with an elongated skull. A Muun, if there ever was one. He wore a dark grey tunic and black robes trimmed in red. Behind him stood another Muun dressed similarly but much shorter and a trio of armored guards; each with a blaster leveled at her.
"I warned you, your life would not be long enough to feel regret." Spoke the first Muun. A tightness closed around her throat and ripped her from the confines of the turbolift. She was propelled toward the Muun as a red glow slid into view.