Somehow,
Jaina didn't find the return trip through the sewer to be as disgusting and
repulsive as her first time through
it. Maybe it was because she didn't
have the luxury of taking her time navigating through the knee-deep sewage
because of the possibility of an army of guards bearing down on them.
Jacen didn't have a weapon, so if it came down to a
fight, they were definitely outnumbered. Jaina was never discouraged by odds. Both her family and herself had spent the majority of their lives
defying the odds.
If she had memorized their route correctly, they only had
about thirty to forty more yards to go before they would be out in the
open. And if Tenal Ka had gotten out of
the police station without too much trouble, she would be waiting for her
friends at the entrance to the sewer.
A thought suddenly occurred to Jaina that she should have
used the com link to tell Tenal Ka that they were on their way, so their friend
would not be worried, or make an attempt at a rescue herself. She fumbled around in her jacket pockets for
her comlink. When she finally found it,
she let out a groan when she realized it had been turned off since the last
time she spoke with Tenal Ka, because she hadn't wanted to take a chance of the
comlink going off in the cell area where there might have been guards
stationed. Tenal Ka could have been
trying to warn them all this time that there were guards blocking their escape.
She switched on the comlink. There was a burst of static that echoed throughout the tunnel,
and then, "-ina, are you there?"
Jaina brought the comlink up to her face, "I'm here. We ran into a little trouble, but we should
be coming out to where you are shortly."
There was a pause. "Is Jacen with you?"
Jaina let out a small smile, despite the seriousness of
their situation. "Yeah, he's right here
sloshing around in the sewage with me." Even though she couldn't hear Tenal Ka give any verbal sign of relief,
Jaina could feel through the force, her friend's worry for Jacen's safety
decrease significantly. Jacen could
feel it too. She could tell by the way
his cheeks slightly reddened at Tenal Ka's concern for him.
"Is everything still going according to plan?" Jaina asked hopefully.
"Yes," Tenal Ka answered, back to the business at hand,
"I had no trouble getting to it,"
Jacen frowned at his siblings. "Do I want to know what the rest of this escape plan involves?"
"No," Jaina and Anakin answered in unison.
Jacen said nothing and kept wading his way through the
repulsive sewage water.
They had only gone a few more yards, when the opening of
the sewer revealed itself. The glowing
moonlight lit the rest of the way for them. When they reached the opening, they saw Tenal Ka waving at them from the
bottom of the Rock Dragon's boarding ramp.
When she saw her friends rushing towards her, Tenal Ka
felt her heart skip a beat at the sight of seeing Jacen, free, and
unharmed. She desperately wanted to run
to him and kiss him passionately, but knew that they still had a long way to go
before they were safe.
Alarmed, that there was only the three of them, Tenal Ka
called out to her friends, "where is Zekk and Tahiri?"
Jaina, nearly out of breath from running, managed to get
out, "they were creating a distraction for the guards, but they should be right
behind us," she didn't sound convinced, but sure enough, Tahiri and Zekk burst
out of the sewer at full-speed a few seconds later.
They were both shouting and waving their arms.
"Start the ship!" They both yelled at the top of their lungs.
Tenal Ka, didn't hesitate. She bounded up the boarding ramp and rushed into the cockpit to
start the pre-flight procedures. Jaina
joined her a split second later.
In the middle of running the pre-flight diagnostics,
Jaina glanced out the cockpit's view port in time to see the first round of
blaster fire come from the tunnel entrance and graze the hull of the ship.
Jaina gave up on the pre-flight diagnostics, which wasn't
a good idea for any ship, but right now they didn't have the time. She heard the boarding ramp hiss shut, and
new that Zekk and Tahiri were safely aboard. Without waiting for anyone to buckle their crash webbing, Jaina lifted
the Rock Dragon off the ground, and took the ship at full throttle
towards the night sky.
Without ships of their own, the guards were left to fire
their blasters uselessly at the escaping ship.
Jaina let out a whoop of joy at finally being free. Her celebrating was cut short when the
sensors started beeping in front of her.
"What is it?" Tenal Ka asked from the co-pilot seat.
"Patrol ships, three of them. I guess that's all they could put together in such a short
time." She peered closely at the sensors
in front of her and frowned. "Two of
them are the new Hapan battle dragon models."
"They will most likely be well-armed," Tenal Ka supplied.
"I really wanted to hear that," Jaina said in a sarcastic
tone. "Well, we'll just have to out
maneuver them, that's all,"
That was when the first laser fire attack came.
The shields buckled a little, but held. It would take more then a little laser fire
to bring down the Rock Dragon's shields.
"You better buckle your crash webbing," Jaina told Tenal
Ka a split second before she put the ship into a series of barrel rolls and
other evasive maneuvers.
"Need any help?" Came Zekk's voice from the cockpit's entrance. He stumbled in the doorway as the ship took another hit. He went to take a seat behind Jaina, but
Tenal Ka motioned for him to sit where she was. She knew Zekk was a much more experienced pilot then her, and it
would probably take him and Jaina working together to get them out of this alive.
"Take the weapons systems," Jaina said without looking at
him.
Zekk turned on the fully charged laser cannons, and began
firing in random patterns at the pursuing ships. Meanwhile, Jaina worked on evading the pursuing Hapan ships while
trying to get them into open space, so they could jump to lightspeed. The Hapan battle dragons were faster than the Rock Dragon, and was gaining on
them quickly. Jaina coaxed as much
speed as possible out of the little ship. She could hear the straining engines, but pushed the ship farther. They managed to burst out of the night sky
on Hapes and into black space.
Zekk had been able to cripple the smaller patrol boat,
and it was now retreating. But the
bigger Hapan ships were better equipped at handling the laser fire Zekk was
throwing at them, so his shots caused little or no damage.
Now, in the open, Jaina set in the coordinates for
lightspeed. She watched the timer tick
back, while continuing to dodge the other ships. It seemed like forever, but finally the counter reached zero, and
the Rock Dragon was swallowed into the safety of hyperspace.
Jaina let go of the controls and sank back in the pilot's
seat, heaving a sigh of relief. After a
moment, she turned to her two friends with a lopsided grin and said, "see, I
told you all along my plan would work out just fine,"