Chapter 17

Lexoc felt like someone had dropped a hundred-kilo sack of sand on her and spun her head around backwards. She had serious trouble dragging herself up to sit by Jesbra.

"What are we going to do?" she asked, putting a hand to her forehead to stop the dizziness that swam in her head. The hissing creature had left them, but Lexoc still felt the dark shadow of his presence. "We can't just sit here. We have to escape. But how?"

"I don't know. This crate is sealed tight."

"Perhaps that control panel?"

"Locked."

"Not for a Jedi," Lexoc reminded her. She pushed herself the rest of the way up and crawled to the panel, fighting her swimming head the whole way. She pushed her dizziness aside and concentrated on the lock. Lexoc felt it vibrate then shake, then a cold restraining and blanketing feeling swept over her.

She could almost hear the snake's shrieking laughter and his voice taunting, Notss ssstrongss enoughss, aress yousss?

Dizziness over took her and she fell to the ground. Jesbra caught her and Lexoc smiled under a new idea.

"Together," she whispered.

Jesbra nodded. "Together," she repeated.

Lexoc sat up and closed her eyes again. She concentrated once more on the lock and Jesbra joined her. The lock shook violently and began to crack in half. It finally snapped and Lexoc slumped backward exhausted.

"They must've double-dosed you," Jesbra said as she helped Lexoc to prop herself up against the wall. "Something that small wiping you. Yes, they most certainly double-dosed you on whatever drug they used to keep us out."

"Probably," Lexoc agreed. "Pull the panel."

Jesbra pulled the control panel out of its slot and began examining the workings behind it. "Wish Nerca were here. I don't get a bit of all these wires."

Lexoc managed to sit up enough to see the workings behind the previously locked control panel. "I don't either."

"I wish I would've listened to some of that mech-and-tech-talk she goes on about." Jesbra sighed and inserted her hands into the wires. "Could've saved us now."

"Just look for the largest wire and pull it," Lexoc groaned, frowning. "Maybe it'll short the bars."

Jesbra turned to glare at Lexoc. "And maybe it'll give me the biggest shock of my life."

"The Force would warn you if it was going to be a fatal or damaging action."

"You know, Lexoc, somehow that still doesn't quite reassure me."

Lexoc shoved her lightly. "Just do it."

Jesbra sighed again. Lexoc saw her squint and insert both of her hands into the wire-workings. She ripped one thick, orange wire out of the mess with a quick jerk as the wires flashed in a sudden blue spark. The lights outside of the crate dimmed, then powered up again as the back-up lights kicked into place.

"Keep pulling," Lexoc told her, trying to get a glimpse of the control panel again. "What I wouldn't give for a lightsaber right now."

Jesbra turned to her and glared again. "You're pulling this time."

"Fine." Jesbra scooted out of the way and Lexoc slid into her place. She looked at the wires closely then put her hands into the circuits. She felt around for the largest wire then yanked as hard and as quickly as she could.

The wire snapped out in a flash of blue sparks brighter than that of Jesbra's attempt. Lexoc jerked back as the explosion widened … and the electric bars powered down.

She pumped a fist in the air. "Yes!" she shouted.

"Yes, let's get moving!" Jesbra snapped back, considerably quieter than Lexoc's shout. Lexoc put a hand to her mouth and crawled as quickly as she could to the now open window. The window was just barely large enough for Lexoc to slither through with a great effort, but there was no way that Jesbra would be able to crawl out through the window.

Lexoc pushed her way out with a struggle and began searching for a way to get Jesbra out. From the outside she could see that the front wall of the crate, the one on which the window sat, lowered or separated somehow. She could also see that the small room that the crate sat in held a seat with straps and an interrogator droid that hovered on stand-by near the chair that was clearly meant for unpleasant interrogations. Lexoc shivered glad to be getting out of there. Who knew what would have happened if they had stayed there another few hours?

She found the switch near the chair on a control panel that seemed to operate every thing in the room, and she flicked it. Slowly, the door lowered. Jesbra hurried out of the crate, obviously as glad to be out of there as Lexoc. She saw the chair and shuddered as Lexoc had.

"Let's get out of here." Jesbra hurried out of the room faster than she had out of the crate.

Lexoc threw one last glance around the room, shuddered and hurried after Jesbra. Only to run into the hissing creature and his glowing red lightsaber.

He chuckled softly, glancing momentarily back at two guards that were holding a struggling Jesbra between them.

"Let me go!" she was shouting, fighting and biting.

The snake hissed something at the guards and one of them pulled out a stun-gun. He pumped a blue stun-bolt into Jesbra, dropping her to the ground. She rose to her knees fighting with all of her Jedi strength against the effects of the stun but the guard pumped another bolt into her. This time she collapsed unconscious to the ground with a moan.

The guards turned to Lexoc; she attempted to run but the ruby-bladed saber held her back. She turned with all of her strength to face the stun, called on all of the strength of that she could show in her face and prepared to give them one heck of a fight. Lexoc lowered her eyes as they pumped the first shot and pushed the effects away with no trouble. The second shot was a little more difficult, but still no problem for her. The guards seemed surprised that she still stood after the two shots that had dropped her companion, the slightly older Jedi. Right after she pushed away the effects of the third, Lexoc took advantage of the guards' surprise and lunged on the first guard, lifted him then hurled him into the other guard. Before they even had a chance to stand, Lexoc called the stun-gun to her hand and pumped a couple of bolts into each of them. She turned to the snake with a wry smile.

"Good, yes? Better fight than you expected?"

The snake smiled back evilly. "ssNot at all. ssNot at all."