Entry Five

When I came out of hyperspace near Tatooine I picked up a distress signal from a craft stalled in the shipping lane. My first mistake was in ignoring the signal. Though I never aid stranded ships I should have been alert to the possibility of pirates this far into the Outer Rim.

Once I passed the small cruiser a large bulk freighter decloaked in front of me. Cloaking my ship at that point would have been useless since the freighter had probably been tracking my course since I came out of hyperspace and decloaked. The stalled ship behind me wheeled around and cut off my escape route.

The docking bay on the freighter opened and three smaller craft started toward me as several panels slid back, exposing proton torpedoes.

My first thought was to jump back into hyperspace but without taking the time to calculate the jump there was no telling where I would come out. My shields would not last long against the freighter's weapons and from the readings my scanners got it would take a long time for my weapons to penetrate the freighter's deflector shields, so I took another defensive approach, quickly formulating a plan and setting it in motion. I cut my engines and lowered my shields. I hurried to an escape pod and jettisoned it just as the pirates latched on to the outer hull of my ship.

I observed the smaller ship from inside my cloaked escape pod. The only visible weapons on it were large ion cannons. The deflector shield on my ship could easily protect it from numerous ion blasts. It was the proton torpedoes from the freighter that worried me. Two blasts from those could have turned me and my ship to dust. I am not fool enough to believe that the cruiser did not have any other weapons on it but once I was inside the freighter I could take care of both ships.

I could have easily piloted the pod down to the planet but I was not going to surrender my ship to pirates. Besides, I needed to take the Queen back to Naboo, and the small engine in the pod would never have made it that far.

So I headed toward the bulk freighter's open docking bay. The freighter looked ready to fall apart, its hull cracked in several places and caked with debris. It was more angular than most ships, its shape not designed for speed or comfort, not to mention battle maneuvers. Bulk freighters tend to be large boxes with hyperdrives, but there was no way my ship could have escaped the cruiser and the freighter's proton torpedoes.

My pod landed quietly in the docking bay. I had to decloak it in order to get out, but the two guards, both Togorian males, ignored me, no doubt assuming that I was a fellow pirate landing a captured pod.

The docking bay looked worse than the outer hull. Crates were haphazardly stacked against the walls, spare parts were dumped in piles throughout the bay, and the lights were only at half power, casting deep shadows in corners and around the greasy piles.

My Master once told me that the greedy are the first to economize. He has never been proven wrong.

The two guards stood partially covered by one of the shadows, but my eyes are more adapted to darkness than most humanoids and I had no difficulty seeing them. Neither held weapons, though there was a pile to their right. Nor did they see me approach from the shadows. They did not have time to respond once I activated my lightsabre. Neither knew of my presence until it was too late for them.

Move in secret when you can. The blow in the darkness is the killing blow, my Master has taught me.

I made my way quickly to the bridge. I saw only one of the Togorians pirates on my way. The freighter seemed to have only a skeleton crew, but that is not uncommon among pirate ships.

I hid in a shadowy corner as I observed the bridge crew for a moment. There were only three Togorians in the room; a captain who was yelling at one of the pirates on my ship, a navigator, and a weapons technician.

'I'm telling you, there's no one on board,' the pirate on the viewscreen roared angrily at the captain. Togorians are known for their quick tempers, which is most likely another reason the crew was so small. With a large number of temperamental creatures trapped in one place fights are very likely to break out; among Togorians fights are usually deadly. 'Of course we searched for hidden compartments, we're not fools.' They must not have searched well, since there are several compartments built into the walls and floors of my ship. 'It's an unmanned ship. That's why it didn't answer the distress signal.'

'Alright, idiot,' the captain growled. 'Bring the ships into the docking bay. If you do find any passengers, kill them.'

'Hela-Tan is a fool,' the navigator growled. 'They could be hiding.'

'Then we'll find them,' the weapons technician snapped.

'Shut your flapping mouth!' the captain roared. 'What's the difference? We have the ship!'

I took that as my cue to attack. Everything faded to gray - the screens, the consoles, cages, open containers. The clutter on the bridge was only a background to my targets. The navigator, the closest of the pirates to me, died without a sound. His head was just rolling off as I spun and killed the weapons technician. By that time the captain had produced a vibro-axe and was charging me blindly, without strategy. I disarmed him with a flick of my wrist and he looked down in shock at the remaining stump of his arm. It took until my blade was almost to his neck before his brain registered the pain. His cry was cut short as I severed his head from his shoulders.

I moved quickly to the control panel and started to work. My Master concentrated heavily on my training in mechanical skills, so it took me little time to interface the proton torpedoes with the propulsion drive. As soon as the ship tried to make the jump into hyperspace the engine would blow up. It was a risk, but most pirate ships leave the scene immediately to avoid capture whether they noticed part of their crew dead or not.

The comm unit sparked to life as I was leaving the bridge. 'Approaching docking bay,' a growling voice reported.

To avoid suspicion, I activated the audio end of the comm unit. 'Proceed to the bridge,' I commanded and left the bridge.

I returned to the docking bay just as my ship touched down on the deck. Three Togorians disembarked and I slipped inside quietly.

I made another mistake in my haste, not scanning the ship with my senses before boarding. One of the pirates was still at the flight control panel. His fur was covered in tiny razors and he held a vibro-axe in his hand which he activated as soon as he saw me enter. I could see that he favored his right side as he charged me, but I had little space to dodge him. The light reflecting off the razors attached to his fur temporarily blinded me. I used the Force to guide my jump as I leapt over his head, but my leg caught the edge of the vibro-axe that he held in the air.

My Master's words raced through my head as I landed hard on my wounded leg. If your enemy inflicts pain, do not allow him to see it. There is no pain where there is strength.

I activated one blade of my lightsabre as I landed and thrust it behind me, filling the air with the stench of blood and singed hair. I kicked the partially conscious Togorian out of the hatch and closed it.

The engines of my ship were already warmed up from the short flight into the docking bay so it took little time to prepare them for departure. I lifted off quickly. The bay doors were already closing when a warning light turned on, alerting me that the hatch had not closed completely. Angry at myself and the pirate, I sent a Force blast that knocked the pirate out of his wedged position in the partially closed hatch. He fell with a scream as he dropped away from my ship. The heat from my engines vaporized him before he hit the thermasteel deck.

I made it out of the bay just as the doors closed behind me. I was several hundred meters away, already starting to orbit Tatooine when the freighter tried to jump into hyperspace. The shockwaves of the blast rocked my ship slightly but quickly dispersed into the space around the desert planet.

It took me a moment to cool my rage before I started my decent into the night sky of Tatooine. My battles are rarely so closely won. I was angry at myself for being caught by the pirates, and even more angry for letting myself be wounded by one of them. My left calf burned where the vibro-axe made contact, but I waited until I landed on the planet to take care of the wound.