to Yaz, because I used her species name for a deity. Cue the 3PO quotes.
Chapter 19: The Great Escape
Master Kell could not at first remember what had happened, what K'Saavis' troops had done to her, but there was blood on her hands and it was not her own. It was red, not purple; probably humanoid. Kell got two sets of talons under her and stood up, then put one hand on the smooth white wall beside her, and looked around.
She and De'shar had been put in a smallish square cell, both apparently unharmed, though the Pho Ph'eahian agent was still curled up on the metal shelf that served as a bed. Kell stretched and swished her tails, then bent down and inspected the panel beside the door that connected with the lock on the other side. It was used for servicing and had been power-spanned inches into the panel, and would be taken out with a machine if needed.
Bigoted humans. They always think only about themselves. Kell set her claws on either side of the panel and began to pull.
By the time De'shar awoke Kell nearly understood what a fuzzy mind had made her forget; that a bunch of humans and a Twi'lek had added physical attacks and resistance to Lee K'Saavis's verbal refusal to comply. Some kind of grenade had gone off, and for a time she had forgotten what had happened, and that Corran was not with them anymore.
So where was he?
The plate on the wall popped free. She set it down and looked into the wire-filled cavity, ignoring the ache in her hands. De'shar came up behind her and Kell switched an eye to look. The agent just glanced at the bundle of wires, ran a hand over her tall ears and into her hair, and said nothing.
Many minutes later Kell had figured out what wires to pull, and De'shar asked, "Are you done yet?"
"No."
"Well if you-"
Kell tore a bundle of wires from the wall. A few sparks skittered across the plate scales on the back of her hand, a sensor was tripped, and the door hissed open.
Kell peered outside. Black cells lined a thin white walkway, and a fat human slept at a circular console at one end. "Imperials gettin' sloppy." She muttered.
De'shar slipped out beside her. "We need to get back to the ship and call the Republic." She said quietly.
"I know. But we have to find Corran first." With the Force she scanned the cells-all old and waiting prisoners-then cast out toward the distant Ph'eahia.
There was a long pause. "He's dead." She said.
"What?"
"Sidi's dead the ship's gone." Kell shook her head, but the images of the young Jedi full of life would not leave her mind's eye. He had been going to be her apprentice.
"So what do we do?"
It irked Kell, that the agent seemed not to care about Sidi or even her ship. "I don't know." She began to pace toward the exit behind the guard, her tails unconsciously lashing so that De'shar stayed far back. "We have to find Corran, or help or something." She was feeling just a little unsettled, just a little dangerous.
Suddenly a booming voice was echoing and filling the small corridor. "HELLO! HELP ME OUT OF HERE I'VE GOT A SHIP!" It turned to a whisper, a scratching version of the deep boom. Kell heard De'shar jump. "And for Kree's sake turn this down!"
Kell desperately looked for the source and found a commlink in the sleeping guard's pudgy hand. She pulled it from him with the Force and dialed the volume down, keeping an eye on the stirring human.
"Where are you?"
The mysterious voice emanated from the commlink's tiny speakers. "One five three eight. I can help you."
De'shar was beginning to hunt along the numbers.
"But who are you?"
"Here," De'shar said.
Kell looked at the agent standing further down the corridor, then at the guard. "Open it up."
De'shar patted her pockets, but apparently the equipment needed had been taken as had Kell's lightsaber.
Kell signaled for her to be quiet and tossed the little commlink. De'shar had to juggle it for a second, despite her four arms.
Kell snuck into the small control room next to the guard again, looking for a drawer or place where captured things would be put, but there was none. It would be just as easy, or difficult, to find a key card on the guard, but she wanted her lightsaber back.
She wasn't going to find it. Something as valuable as a lightsaber was undoubtedly taken by some officer, who at this moment was bragging about how he had killed a Jedi.
Finally Kell held a hand over the guard's forehead to keep him asleep while she rummaged in his pockets. She quickly passed the card to De'shar she eventually got--among a name tag and some lint--from the man's pocket.
She slid the card in and the door opened. An alien bounded out and shook itself, then solemnly bowed.
"Paqs Patra at your service." He said. "Our ship is yours."
"Ah, thank you." Kell said. "But we need to find our other comrade first, and who exactly are you?"
"Paqs Patra."
"Yes but who, what do you do? Why are you here?"
"We were an Imperial spy once. We didn't work just for the Empire though. They imprisoned us."
Kell had to assume that the plural was this being's natural mode of speaking. She herded the new, weird group toward the other door, noting just how big this Paqs was--as tall as her, that long again, and as wide.
"Have you been here since the Rebellion?" De'shar asked.
"We were at Carida for a time."
"It was destroyed." De'shar muttered.
"We know the war is over. We have been waiting a long time."
"Just wait a little longer." Kell said, and she led them out into the bland and metal-ribbed hallways of Maw Installation.