Crash! Crash! Crash! Nelkf awoke with a start. A clanging noise is not the most subtle of alarm clocks. She glared across the dimly lit cell to see who had so rudely awoke her, though she already knew. When she saw Jax was up, she was less then pleased. "Damn you, Jax!" she jumped up and shot him a dirty glare. "You could have just come over and tapped me on the shoulder!"
Jax beamed obnoxiously and lowered the two prison food trays he had been slamming together. "I'll try to remember that next time. Sleep well?" "Well, right up until the morning fanfare it was wonderful. You're feeling better too, I see."
"Yeah, I'm still a little dizzy though. You can bet that I won't let the Imps know. They won't use that poison again if they think there aren't any side effects."
"Other then you're acting like a complete moron."
"That's normal for me," Jax slammed the trays together again, the crash echoing and reechoing in the cell.
Nelkf had had it with the trays. She snatched one out of his hands and brought it down gently but forcefully on his head. "Why are you doing that?" She demanded.
Jax rubbed his head despite the fact that it was not necessary. "Ow, careful. I told you, I'm still dizzy!"
"Well, now the Imps won't notice if you act it. You still haven't told me why you're smashing those trays together."
"Breakfast." Jax grinned obnoxiously.
"Breakfast? You woke me up for breakfast? Don't you know Sklinths don't eat breakfast? Couldn't you just save it?"
"Nope." Jax handed her a bowl with some sort of sludgy paste inside. An unappetizing bubble worked its way to the top of the gruel and popped. Nelkf tried to remember if she had ever seen anything more disgusting. Swamp water? No, even that looked tasty compared to this.
"Jax, how do you know it isn't tainted or something?"
Jax thought about it. He didn't seem to like the slop anymore then she did, but Humans needed to eat when they woke up. Silly. "Because," he said, "They aren't that subtle, or that smart."
Nelkf sighed and poked at the ooze with her spoon. "I'd rather eat cherfer toes."
Jax shook his head. "Come on Nelkf. You can't starve. Anyway, it's got to be better then those-What do you call em? Concentrates?"
Nelkf looked up. "Concentrates," she said with a half laugh. She stopped abruptly. "Concentrates?"
Jax shot her a quizzical look.
"That's it!" Nelkf exclaimed, leaping up. "I've got it! Concentrates!"
Jax glanced at her in a half-sure way. "Have you lost your so-called Sklinth mind?"
"Ha! Not by half, Smuggler! Not by half!" she threw the bowl of sludge, and it broke, spattering the wall. Jax decided to ignore it. Over the period of a year, and a lifetime of racing around the Galaxy, he'd met up with aliens with worse manners.
Nelkf snatched a spoon from the broken bowl and wiped it on her pilot's suit. She had been searched, but she suspected that the Imperials had not yet had time enough to give her one of the dull gray shirts and pants that the other prisoners wore.
Bending the spoon into a half-moon, Nelkf mumbled to herself. "When I first enrolled in the New Republic, some one locked me out of the store holds where my ship's supplies were as a joke. I had to break in using my life monitor...."
"And you're going to try to use the same deal to get us out of here, right?"
Nelkf nodded. "You got it Smuggler."
Jax sighed and shook his head. "Hey, Sklinth, in case you didn't know, there's a big difference between a spoon and a life monitor."
"Not much of one," she sniffed
"Hey, the things are completely different! I'm sorry if on your world, wherever you come from, that a life monitor and a spoon are the same thing, but not here."
Nelkf glared at him "first of all, I have not been to my home world since I was four, and then, spoons and life monitors were different. Secondly, they are very much alike. They use the same metals, and both can easily be bent like so," she held up the now curved spoon. "And it will help us break out, if I can just remember how..."
Jax groaned. She had probably used parts of the monitor in her break-in, or maybe tricked up the lock mechanism with the lights on the monitor. With only a curved spoon now, what where the chances it would work? Never the less, he decided to watch.
Nelkf fiddled with the spoon, all the while muttering softly to herself. "Bloody Sith sucking Imps. If Slek weren't part of some stormie's souped up speeder bike by now, I bet he'd remember! Was the life monitor to the left side, or the right...?"
There was a high pitched screech as the subtle magnetic discharge was collected in the spoon and forced back into the lock, overloading it. Jax covered his ears and snapped at Nelkf over the din. "What did you do?!"
Nelkf yelled back, one hand holding the spoon in place. "I made an electro magnetic U-turn..-I think," the lock started to shake under Nelkf's grip. "Uh-oh," she muttered. "I think you better get down Jax..."
Jax muttered a curse and dove for the floor. Nelkf held the spoon in place only a second longer before hitting the deck herself. An explosion tore through the cell with enough force to deafen a being of more sensitive hearing. Small shards flew from the exploding door and over their heads only to embed themselves in the far wall. Smoldering debris rolled along the floor and came to rest alongside them.
The Sklinth glanced up, seeing what she had hoped for. "Necho chee ko Noio temana! It worked!" she leapt up and started to pull Jax along with her. "Let's go Smuggler!"
Jax pulled away from her, more difficult then he expected. Nelkf seemed very frail and delicate. "I'm sorry Nelkf. It's not possible."
"Sure it is. You just get up, walk through the door, blow up a few stormies-"
"Nelkf," Jax cut her off in mid sentence, "you don't understand. Its not I'm afraid or that I don't want to leave, it's a matter of not being able to. Mindkill device," he tapped his head, "remember?"
"Oh," Nelkf thought about that. "Well, I'll help you get out." She would not leave him here. Even if she had to drag him out.
"What?"
Nelkf grinned. "As much as I've tried not to, I like you, Smuggler. And I won't leave you here now for no reason. Besides, isn't there a breaking point to the device?"
"Oh, sure." Jax pointed despairingly skyward. "Once I leave planet, get the idea?"
"That doesn't matter. We're going to get off this rock in any case. And if you can't think a way out of here, I don't know any other Human who can." She patted his shoulder comfortingly.
"But you know that security is going to be pretty tight."
"Sith can take security. As far as I'm concerned, we're already out of here."
Jax looked at her and smiled back. "Okay. We're gone."
"I doubt that." Both escapees whirled around. To their horror, they were surrounded by stormtroopers with Rakson at the head. The Imperial smiled in a stomach churning way, arming a tranquilizer gun.
Nelkf was horrified, confused, and outraged all at once. She marched up into Rakson's face, too angry to think clearly. She ignored the tranquilizer pointed at her entirely. "What the hell is this?!" she demanded "How did you know?! I blew the door clear off the wall! How-"
Rakson smiled at her, angering her further. "Really my little nerf, did you expect me to construct a prison without security cameras or alarms? You are even stupider then I thought." He shook his head sadly. "I really hoped you would have stayed out of trouble until we had time to brainwash your loyalty to the Rebellion."
"New Republic," Nelkf snarled. Inside, she was afraid, realizing the danger she had just put them in. With a swift swipe of her wrist, she sent the tranquilizer spiraling upwards, causing it to go off in the process.
That seemed the cue for attack. Jax knocked into Rakson, pushing him to the ground.
Only after the damage was done did Nelkf and Jax realize the grave situation they had placed themselves in. The troopers opened fire, filling the room with the noise of blaster bolts and the smell of ozone. Nelkf and Jax somehow managed to avoid the onslaught, leaping and spinning on hunches to avoid getting hit. Some of the stormtroopers were not as fortunate as they were. The majority of the attacking forces were cut down by their own crossfire. The floor soon became littered with the bodies of the more unfortunate and slow. With less fire to worry about, the two escapees could relax marginally. They did not notice Rakson dragging himself to his feet and taking aim with a blaster rifle from a dead trooper.
The Imperial muttered; "Long live the Empire!"
By some slim chance Jax saw the movement. He wanted to run and push Nelkf out of the way, but all he could do in time was warn her. "Nelkf! Look out for Rakson!"
Nelkf knew better then to waste time looking. She dipped down, spinning her tail across the floor like a trip wire. Rakson fell, and the blaster went sailing free. The Imperial lay unmoving, unconscious.
Jax watched curiously as Nelkf swung her tail again and again, bringing down the rest of the attack force. If they were not knocked unconscious when they hit the floor, Nelkf would use her tail again to club them out. Sure, it doesn't kill them, but it keeps them from interfering. I wonder where she thought that move up.
Jax spotted a fairly well charged gun in the corner and lunged for it. He turned around and prepared to lose fire on the troops who where quickly surrounding Nelkf.
"Look out Nel! This could get a little messy!"
Nelkf clubbed another stormtrooper out while she replied. "If you can stand it, Human, so can I!"
Jax shrugged and opened fire. Soon there were no more attackers for them to worry about. Nelkf stood, panting in an attempt to catch her breath. Jax still held the blaster, as if daring any of the corpses to move.
The Sklinth shook her head. "They shouldn't have tried to stop a determined Sklinth," she smiled at Jax, "or an overly confident Human smuggler."
Jax smiled back, laughing. "Well Nel, shall we leave?"
"Not just yet. We need to get some of these weapons. And where do you get off calling me 'Nel'?" she scowled at him.
Jax shrugged. "Would you rather I called you Nerf? It's shorter then 'Nelkf'. Easier to pronounce too."
"Well, don't do it. In my native language, it isn't at all better then 'Nelkf'. If one of my people heard you calling me that-"
Jax started to laugh at her. "Your species isn't at all common in the Galaxy, Nel. What are the chances they would hear me and understand me anyway?"
Nelkf sniffed.
"Look, Nel, I promise I won't call you 'Nel' in front of members of your own species. You've got my word on that."
I wonder what that's worth. The promise of a smuggler. Nelkf sighed, and decided she's have to take what she got. "Are you sure you can hold out under the mindkill device?"
"No, but that's half the fun of a gamble."
"We can't take that chance!" she snapped "Can you, or can you not?"
"Nel, we have to take that chance," Jax said, "There's no way of knowing otherwise."
Nelkf sighed. "Fine, but if you drop down screaming in the middle of our escape, you're staying behind." Nelkf made the threat, but she knew she couldn't keep it. Despite instinctive hates, she was beginning to enjoy Jax's company. If he were in trouble or pain, she knew she would have to help him. She was bound to him by friendship. Perhaps even something more then that.
She watched as Jax took a vibroblade from a trooper who wouldn't need it anymore. She swished her tail impatiently. "Ready to go now?"
"If I'm not," Jax replied, "it won't make much of a difference. Well," he smiled and headed for the door, "are we going to just stand around waiting to be captured, or are we breaking out of here? Come on!"
Nelkf followed him out in fear.
