Ignoring the growling of her stomach, Eclipsa pushed the hyperdrive lever back up against its stop, dropping the Meteora out of hyperspace. The lush, green forest moon of Endor lay beyond the viewscreen, the surrounding space as far as she could see void of any other spacecraft.
"Alright, let's find Shri'gaa Outpost," she whispered to herself. "And hope Master Rhombulus...and some food...are waiting for me."
Steering the LA-3500x "SkyCruiser" yacht toward the moon's northern hemisphere, she flipped her comms transmitter to an open short-range frequency so that it would not be received by anyone off of the moon's surface. "This is 'Lost Moth,'" she said, using the code name Rhombulus had given her in his message, "calling Shri'gaa Outpost. Does anyone read me?"
She waited for a few moments, but there was no reply.
"This is 'Lost Moth' calling Shri'gaa Outpost on Endor. Is anybody receiving me?"
Silence.
"Hmm." Eclipsa wondered if perhaps her transmitter was malfunctioning and checked the signal, but it seemed to be broadcasting properly. "Perhaps the problem is on their end. They must not be receiving me."
Still wary that something was amiss, Eclipsa guided the Meteora in cautiously, prepared to turn and flee in case of danger. (Not that she would get very far. Her fuel readout was flashing emergency red.)
And then, as she descended out of the clouds, Shri'gaa Outpost came into view in the light of the mid-afternoon sun.
It was completely decimated.
"Oh, my!"
Every single one of the outpost's buildings had been burned, the remnants of their wooden structures partially collapsed and smoldering. Small fires still burned here and there amongst the rubble. As theMeteora drew closer, Eclipsa caught sight of the corpses. They lay where they had fallen, strewn about in the dirt streets.
The Senator was speechless, not believing her eyes. She wanted to turn around and escape this outpost-turned-graveyard, but her fuel indicator showed that she only had enough to stay in the air for another two minutes or so before the reactor became fuel-starved and stalled.
Beyond the trees surrounding the outpost, a clearing served as a landing field, and the outlines of a half-dozen small and medium sized ships were clearly visible in the fading light. Perhaps there would be a ship there that had enough power for her to get off-world again. That tiny spark of hope in Eclipsa's heart died out as she passed over the trees. Every ship in the field had been systematically destroyed, appearing to have had explosives set off inside their cabins.
With no fuel left to remain in the air, Eclipsa lowered the landing gear and gently set the Meteora down in the landing field. After powering everything down, Eclipsa held her head in her hands, consumed by a feeling of despair. "Oh, dear...what am I to do now?" Overwhelmed by the hopeless nature of her situation, a few tears slipped from Eclipsa's eyes, splashing onto the control panel. When she had composed herself once more, she looked out the viewscreen again at the destroyed ships outside.
"Well...I am rightly stuck here now. I suppose I might as well go have a look around and see if I can find anything that could help me."
She stood up from the single pilot's seat and slowly walked to the boarding ramp. When the ramp reached the ground and her line of sight was cleared, Eclipsa saw a figure standing at the bottom, waiting. It was an aged Quarren man.
"Are you Senator Butterfly?"
"Um...yes?" she answered hesitantly.
The Quarren man took two steps forward. "My name is Torano. I was a friend of the Jedi named Rhombulus."
"Rhombulus?" Eclipsa's empty stomach turned over. "Where...where is Rhombulus?" she asked, reasonably certain that she already knew the answer.
Torano sadly shook his head. "I'm afraid that Rhombulus...is dead. Along with all of the other residents of Shri'gaa Outpost. I am the only survivor."
Eclipsa sank to her knees and slowly sat down on the boarding ramp, lacking both the strength and the will to stand any longer. The old Quarren climbed the boarding ramp and sat down beside her. "What happened here?" she asked.
Torano stared off at a thin column of smoke rising above the trees from the last burning remains of the destroyed village. "Somehow, the Empire discovered that Rhombulus was hiding here. When they arrived, I instructed Rhombulus to stay out of sight. Darth Vader commanded that we give up the Jedi, but no one would betray him.
"When he threatened to start executing civilians, Rhombulus gave himself up. He tried to fight Vader, but..." Torano gave a dejected sigh. "Vader bested him."
For a moment, the old Quarren fell silent, and Eclipsa swallowed hard, her throat dry.
Torano went on. "And then...after Master Rhombulus had fallen...Vader ordered his troops...to execute every single resident of the Outpost."
To Eclipsa, this was the most shocking news of all. "What? Why would the Empire execute civilians?"
"For aiding a traitor and enemy of the Empire." The Quarren sighed. "Then they set fire to the village and destroyed the ships here in the landing field, I suppose it was all to make an example of us, to demonstrate the consequences of aiding the Jedi."
Completely overwhelmed, Eclipsa removed her hat and put a hand to her right temple. "I simply cannot believe that Sheev would allow this sort of behavior from his army."
Torano sadly shook his head. "The man the galaxy knew as Chancellor Sheev Palpatine was merely a facade, I think. A fabrication of a an evil tyrant's mind to conceal his true nature." The Quarren slowly got to his feet. "We should leave this place. There is nothing left here...for either of us."
Eclipsa looked away. "I'm afraid that isn't even an option. My ship is out of fuel. I was hoping that if I came here that I might at the very least be able to refuel, but..." She looked back at Torano. "I'm assuming any supply of fuel you had here is probably destroyed as well."
The Quarren solemnly nodded. "Unfortunately, your assumption is correct, Senator."
Eclipsa sighed. "So we really are stuck here, then. I get we sh-"
A blaster bolt pinged off the hull of the ship just above Eclipsa's head.
"Someone was attacking you?!" Star exclaimed. "Who?"
"Well, they looked like clone troopers, sort of-"
"The Empire is calling them 'stormtroopers.'" River cut her off. "From what I've heard, they're practically cold-blooded."
Moon hugged her arms to her chest as if she had suddenly become cold. "Some of them were here with Commander Emond when he came to question us about you, Star. They just had this air about them...as if they were meant to be intimidating."
"I certainly thought they were intimidating when they were shooting at me," Eclipsa said, meaning for it to be slightly sarcastic but instead coming out gravely serious. "I guess when the bulk of the Imperials left, a small surveillance squadron stayed behind."
"So what happened?" Marco asked.
"Well..."
Dropping her hat, Eclipsa scrambled backwards, stumbling to her feet. "Quickly! Get inside the ship!"
She and Torano awkwardly hurried the short distance up the boarding ramp to the safety of the ship's interior as three Imperial stormtroopers unleashed a hail of blaster fire from the tree line at the edge of the landing field. Eclipsa quickly activated the boarding ramp control, but the exterior door that sealed off the cabin could not close until the boarding ramp had fully retracted. The Senator pressed her body into the corner of the bulkhead beside the door, almost completely shielded from the stormtroopers' shots.
On the opposite side of the door, Torano copied her position. Unfortunately, Torano's body was not so easily concealed by the narrow bulkhead. A hot bolt of energy struck him in the side. He cried out in pain and fell sideways, collapsing to the floor. Now completely exposed, he was struck again in the upper chest just as the door slid closed.
Eclipsa dropped to her knees beside him as a few rounds of blaster fire terminated on the other side of the exterior hatch. "Oh, no! Torano!"
Small trickles of smoke rose up from blaster wounds. "It's okay..." he whispered, his voice laced with pain. "It must be my time." He took Eclipsa's hand. "Those stormtroopers likely have explosives. They'll blow up this ship like the others with you inside unless you can fend them off. Have you any weapons aboard?"
"I'm afraid I do not."
Wincing in pain, Torano reached into his vest, extracting a small blaster pistol. "Here." He held it out to her. "Take this."
Eclipsa sighed as she gently took it from the old Quarren's hand. "What's the point? Even if I can defeat those troopers, I have no means of survival and no way off of this planet."
"Well, perhaps you can-" Torano abruptly fell silent, his eyes growing wide. "Rhombulus's ship! He told me he hid it in a ravine just south of here when he arrived. Perhaps the Imperials did not find it, and you can use it to escape the planet!"
Marco raised a confused eyebrow. "But wait, you got here on your ship," he said. "On the Meteora."
Star nudged him in the arm with her elbow. "Marco! She's in the middle of telling us how Master Rhombulus's friend died!"
Eclipsa chuckled. "Not to worry. I will get to that, Marco.
There was a loud clanging sound against the Meteroa's exterior door.
"Door's sealed. There's no way we're getting in there."
"I'll fetch the charges."
Eclipsa's entire body tensed up. "That cannot be good."
"Quickly!" Torano urged, wincing in pain. "You must defeat them!"
Placing her hand on the blaster's grip with determination, Eclipsa stood up. If the troopers were heading to retrieve explosive charges, they were probably walking away from the ship. If she was quick, she might be able to hit at least one of them before they had a chance to react.
Moving as quickly as she could, Eclipsa hit the door control and the hatch slid up as the boarding ramp deployed once more. There were only three stormtroopers. One wore the bright orange pauldron of a captain on his shoulder, and all three sported perfectly clean white armor. They turned around when they heard the Meteora's door slide open, but Eclipsa was already drawing a bead on the first one. Her hand was unsteady, having been quite some time since she had held a blaster, and her tired and hungry body had difficulty supporting the weight of the gun. She squeezed the trigger and got off three shots, managing to strike one of the stormtroopers in the back of the right knee. The trooper cried out and dropped his weapon as the other two brought their blasters to bear on the Senator in the doorway.
Eclipsa ducked back behind the bulkhead as a small barrage of hot lasers slammed into the hull beside the door.
"This may not have been the best idea," she whispered to herself as she realized that opening the door had now also re-extended the boarding ramp, allowing the troopers entry to the ship.
Then again, perhaps she could use that to her advantage.
Keeping as close to the bulkhead as she could to make herself as small a target as possible, Eclipsa hurried further into the cabin of the Meteora.
"Quick! After her!" she heard the stormtrooper captain yell.
Eclipsa darted into the galley and hid with her back against the bulkhead beside the door, holding her blaster at the ready. From elsewhere in the ship, a single blaster shot rang out. Her stomach twisted, hoping that single shot was not what she assumed it to be.
"I'll go this way," she heard one of the troopers say. "You check that side."
They were in the main entry corridor. If they were splitting up, that meant that one must be heading up to the cockpit and passenger compartment. The other was likely heading toward her.
Well...at least I'll only have to deal with one at a time...
A set of heavy footsteps drew closer. Eclipsa's heart beat so fast and hard she was worried that the sound of it pounding would betray her position. The footfalls were now right outside the galley doorway. Her finger twitched on the blaster's trigger.
The stormtrooper captain's helmet poked through the doorway, just a meter away from her. Without a moment to hesitate, Eclipsa turned the barrel of the blaster toward the side of the white helmet and fired.
The red bolt of energy did not have to travel far before it connected with its target. The stormtrooper captain fell forward, landing face down on the floor.
The chirp of the blaster echoed through the ship. The remaining stormtrooper surely heard it and was likely already hurrying to his captain's position. Eclipsa should have standing in wait to take the other trooper by surprise just as she had the first one.
But she wasn't.
She was transfixed. Something on the stormtrooper captain's armor had caught her attention. Attached to the utility belt around the captain's waist was a lightsaber.
Rhombulus...
Eclipsa knelt down beside the fallen stormtrooper, completely oblivious to anything that might be happening around her. The lightsaber hilt was constructed of a metal alloy of some type, composite rings around most of its length for gripping aid. A strictly ornamental crystal cut to resemble a miniature version of the original builder's head capped the bottom end. Eclipsa pulled it from the stormtrooper's belt and held it in her free hand.
"Freeze!"
Oh, right.
The remaining stormtrooper was standing in the doorway behind her. She quickly slid the lightsaber into the sleeve of her dress before the trooper could see it.
"Don't move! Drop the blaster!"
The blaster clattered to the floor as Eclipsa relinquished her grasp on its grip.
"Stand up!"
Eclipsa got to her feet, using her left hand to help push herself upright. With her arm facing downward as she pushed herself up, she let the lightsaber hilt slide partially back out of her sleeve, catching the emitter end with her fingers to keep it from falling out.
"Now turn around! Slowly!"
And so she obeyed, keeping her arm in an orientation such that the lightsaber hilt was hidden from view. Now, she found herself face-to-face with the stormtrooper, looking down the barrel of an E-11 blaster rifle.
"Who are you?" demanded the trooper.
Eclipsa would have to take him by surprise. "My name is Senator Eclipsa Butterfly of the Galactic Senate of the Repub-" Mid sentence, she swung her right arm and pushed the blaster down and to the side as she pulled the lightsaber hilt fully into her left hand and depressed the activation plate.
The sound of the stormtrooper's blaster going off drowned out the ignition of the azure blade of Rhombulus's lightsaber. As Eclipsa stared at the humming lightsaber blade currently piercing the chest of the stormtrooper, she felt a terrific burning sensation in her left side, just below her ribs. While she had managed to push the blaster away from her body before impaling the trooper with the lightsaber, the trooper had pushed back, bringing the blaster just far enough forward to catch her in the side with a single shot.
Letting out a pained groan, Eclipsa extinguished the laser sword and the dead stormtrooper collapsed to the ground. Soon after, she herself sank to her knees, her side feeling as though it were on fire.
Carefully leaning back into a sitting position on the floor beside the dead captain, Eclipsa examined her side. A fist-sized section of fabric of her plum-colored dress had been burned away where the energy bolt had struck her side, the exposed skin black and charred. In her already weakened state, the pain was excruciating and exhausting. Eclipsa could not move. For nearly an hour, she remained motionless on the floor.
Gradually, the burning subsided, eventually fading enough that Eclipsa was able to move, but not yet stand. With her limited motion, she checked the stormtrooper captain's utility belt for anything that might be useful and was overjoyed to find a small supply bar. It was nowhere near enough nourishment, but it helped, and she gobbled it down in three bites.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity of sitting on the floor in agony, Eclipsa was able to pull herself to her feet. She slipped Rhombulus's lightsaber into her pocket and, using the bulkhead for support, carefully stepped over the dead stormtroopers. While the burning sensation of the blaster bolt had mostly vanished, her side ached terribly and made walking very difficult. She staggered toward the external hatch at the ship's stern, already knowing what she would find when she reached it.
"I knew Torano would be dead when I reached him, and I was unfortunately correct. Those stormtroopers executed him when they boarded the ship." Eclipsa sighed. "At least he did not suffer any longer."
"That poor soul," River said solemnly.
"Indeed. I wish I could have given him a more proper burial," Eclipsa said. "Or returned his body to his home world. Alas, I was in no condition to do either."
Despite the somber nature of this part of the story, Star was still giddy with anticipation to find out what had occurred next. "So then what happened, Aunt Eclipsa?"
"Well, I remembered that Torano had told me that Rhombulus's ship was hidden in a ravine somewhere to the south. I figured that to be my only real option, so I ventured out to look for it. The third stormtrooper outside was still alive as I'd only hit him in the leg and he nearly did me in while I was searching for my hat. Fortunately for me, a stormtrooper that is lying on the ground is an easy target. Then I went galavanting off through the woods, as well as one can galavant with a blaster wound, to find Rhombulus's ship. Let me tell you, it was not easy, considering that I only had a general direction to go on. I was hoping that wherever this ravine was, it was large and stretched far enough that I would just happen upon it." Eclipsa gave a chuckle. "And sure enough...I did."
Pushing branches and brush out of her way, Eclipsa stumbled through the thick Endor woods. Her hat caught on a bramble and she reached back to grab it, making the mistake of reaching for it with her left arm, stretching the injured tissue on the left side of her body. She shrank her arm back and grimaced in pain, then carefully retrieved her hat with her right arm instead.
"Oh, dear," she sighed as she pulled the wide-brimmed hat back onto her head. "This is not going to be easy."
She took one more step and fell forward through the brush as the ground suddenly vanished from beneath her foot. She tumbled a short way down an embankment before crashing into a tree, ending her unexpected trip.
"Ouch..." she groaned, picking up herself and her hat once more. Looking around, she found herself in a shallow chasm, about ten meters deep. "Oh. Would you look at that? I do believe I've found the ravine." She chuckled. "What luck!"
Using the tree she'd crashed into as a handhold, Eclipsa carefully moved around it, scanning the bottom of the ravine. A swift but relatively calm creek ran through it, the running water slowly carving out the valley over hundreds of years. On its banks just below her was a Q-39 Sunchaser, still sitting just where Rhombulus had left it.
Eclipsa smiled. "Even better."
It took some time for her to climb all the way down in her injured state, but eventually, she made it down to the little four-passenger shuttle. The ship was old, and it was hard to tell if it had been sitting for two weeks or twenty years.
"Seems to still be intact. Let's hope everything works well enough for me to fly it."
Eclipsa climbed aboard and sank gratefully into the pilot's seat. The control panel lit up when she switched on the power. "Alright. I have electrical power. That's a good start." She searched for the reactor prime control and triggered it, turned on the fuel pump, and flipped the switch to spark the primary ignition motivator. The sound of the aged reactor coughing to life echoed into the cockpit from behind her. She watched the power output graph increasing on the computer readout. "Reactor is still functional." She rubbed her palms together in nervous anticipation. "Let's see if she'll fly."
Eclipsa pushed forward the throttle lever a little bit, watching the status on the computer readout. The single engine showed no response of any kind on the screen, and there was no whine of the thruster turbine spinning. She pushed it up a little more, but still nothing.
"Oh, dear..."
"Oh, dear..."
"Moon, sis, that is exactly what I said," Eclipsa chuckled. She adjusted herself in the med bay bed slightly, becoming a bit sore from sitting in the same position for so long.
Marco nodded slowly. "Ohhh...so that's why you didn't arrive in Master Rhombulus's ship."
"Yes, Marco. And it wasn't difficult to figure out what the problem was, either..."
"Well, I don't think I'm going to be able to fix that."
Eclipsa stood behind the ship, looking up at the single propulsion thruster mounted in the center of the fuselage. An iridescent spider easily the size of her head was staring back at her from inside. It had spun its funnel-shaped web all around the inside of the thruster, the silk threads so strong that they were completely preventing the inner workings from moving.
She could shoot the spider with her blaster, but what good would that do? It wasn't as if she were in any kind of condition to scale the ship up to the engine and clean out the webbing.
Sighing in defeat, Eclipsa sat down on a fallen log. "Now what do I do?"
For several minutes, Eclipsa did nothing more than sit, not even attempting to think of a solution to her predicament. After several minutes, the inexplicable feeling of being watched pricked at the back of her neck. She quickly glanced around. "Hello? Is someone there?"
Silence.
"Hmmm..."
Something poked Eclipsa in the right leg. She looked down and found herself looking into the eyes of a tiny, furry, bipedal creature with a cloth hood over its ears and holding a pointy spear.
"Well, hello there, little one!" Eclipsa greeted the Ewok.
"Cheeka poog yaght ty agudem?" it squeaked back.
"Oh! Ewokese! Yes! I speak a little! Um, Gee ackbug. Uh, kii lug a...a...arook? Aroek? Taqua preej maka-maka...uh...ejata? Beeka...shrook?"
The Ewok titled its head at her questioningly as Eclipsa did her best to commune with it in its native tongue. Then it said "Wrok! Apuu aj'ahsa!"
"I didn't know you spoke Ewokese, Aunt Eclipsa!" Star exclaimed. "Can you teach me? Ewoks are so cute!"
"And can you also translate what you were saying for the rest of us who do not speak it?" Moon asked.
Eclipsa laughed. "I can try to teach you a little, Star, but I don't speak it very well myself. As for what we were saying, the Ewok simply asked me what I was doing out there in the woods. I told him my ship was out of fuel and this one was broken. Then he said he could help me. Quite a friendly little fellow he was."
Brimming with anticipation, Star hopped up onto the bed with her Aunt. "So what happened next?"
"Well, the Ewok's name was Fahn. He had a friend nearby named Steve."
River hurrumphed in surprise. "I'm sorry, did you say Steve?"
Marco shared the sentiment. "Yeah, what kind of Ewok name is Steve?"
Eclipsa shrugged. "I don't know. I did not question it. Anyway, they suggested that I bring my ship to the ravine and siphon the fuel out of Rhombulus's ship into theMeteora. I, uh, didn't exactly know how to do that, but, I will tell you, those little Ewoks sure were smarter than they looked. They helped me transfer the fuel...by which I mean they mostly did it for me because I certainly never would have had the strength to do it on my own. I'm surprised I was even able to find Master Rhombulus's ship in the first place.
"So, once the Meteora was skyworthy again, I decided I would have to return here because I had no where else to go, and hope that there would not be an Imperial battalion waiting to shoot me down when I arrived."
Marco laughed nervously. "That's kind of the same logic we were going by when we decided to come here."
Eclipsa returned his giggle. "So what adventures befell you two?"
"Oh, man!" Marco gasped. "Where to even start?"
Star knew exactly where to start. She spun her legs around over the edge of the bed and slid over closer to Eclipsa, talking as fast as she could. "Buckle up, Aunt Eclipsa, because let me tell ya, it's a RIDE. So, Marco and I were in my room at the Jedi Temple and we started hearing blaster fire so we looked outside and saw a whole bunch of Clone troopers shooting up the place! And Master Skywalker was helping them! And...!"
As their daughter excitedly retold her tale to Eclipsa (with some interjections from Marco) Moon took River aside. Before she even spoke, the King knew that something was plaguing his wife just from the look on her face.
"What's wrong, Moonpie? You look rather worried."
Moon pursed her lips nervously. "The Empire executed that entire village because they were harboring a fugitive Jedi. We're hiding two, plus a senator who they've tried to kill multiple times."
"You're not seriously considering throwing our daughter and your sister off the planet, are you?"
"Of course not!" She glanced over at Star and Eclipsa with Marco on the other side of the medical bay. "I'm just worried about what will happen if the Empire finds out that they're here."
River sighed. "I admit, that thought had crossed my mind, as well. We'll just have to make extra certain that the Empire does not discover their whereabouts!"
But Moon had her doubts that that would be possible.
Janna led the way as she and Tom climbed up the stairs from Juni Street Station among the throng of other people disembarking from the maglev subway. PY-HD followed close behind, chittering complaints about how grimy the street was and how people kept bumping into it. "Oh, yeah. There it is," Janna said, taking a deep breath. "The stench of durasteel foundries and black market deals. Just how I remember it."
Tom looked around, taking in the sights as he shifted the carrying case containing the credits from King River from one hand to the other. Juni Street dropped off into the ocean on one side, and a six-story high wall of scaffolding supporting a tangled web of pipes and wiring conduits was on the other. "This is where you grew up?"
"More or less. C'mon, let's get going. My friend is probably already waiting for us."
"Excuse me, droid?"
T-36B, an aging LOM-Series protocol droid, looked up from its console station at the front desk. A man in an Imperial Security Officer's uniform and a helmeted being dressed entirely in black were walking into the reception area of the repair shop. "Yes, sir. How may I assist you?"
The man held up his Imperial credentials for the droid to see. "Security Officer Rosado, Imperial Army. Is the owner of this repair shop currently on the premises?"
The droid appeared to be carefully processing and considering the officer's words. "The Master is currently-"
"Right here." The voice came from a door that had just slid open, and a somewhat portly red-haired human male dressed in coveralls and wiping his hands on a rag strolled toward them. He stuck out his still grimy hand and enthusiastically introduced himself. "Ferguson O'durguson, ship repair extraordinaire."
Officer Rosado reluctantly accepted the handshake. "Uh, Security Officer Rosado, Imperial Army."
Ferguson then offered the same hand to the Inquisitor, who did not uncross its impatient arms to shake it. "Enough pleasantries. You do any repair work on a YV-560 light freighter recently? Registered to a Lucy Lucille Lucitor?"
"YV-560? You talking about that ship that fled Coruscant right after the Republic was reorganized? The one that was seen rescuing two Jedi?"
"You've seen it?!" Rosado exclaimed.
Ferguson shook his head. "Nah, man, I wish. That ship's practically famous! I heard about it from another starship mechanic, who heard about it from a freighter pilot who heard about it from a customer who lives on Coruscant that saw the whole thing."
"Do you know who it belongs to, at least?" the inquisitor asked.
"Nope. Sorry." He folded his arms defiantly. "But, if I did, I sure wouldn't tell the people trying to track it down."
Behind the mask, the Inquisitor narrowed its eyes. Security Officer Rosado could tell by the subtle change in body language that the Inquisitor was enraged, and had a hunch he knew what was about to happen.
In one lightning fast motion, the Inquisitor snatched one of the twin lightsaber hilts from its belt and aimed the emitter at Ferguson's gut, but just as its thumb touched the activation plate, the blade's trajectory was changed, and the crimson blade missed Ferguson entirely by a few centimeters. Confused and furious, the Inquisitor looked to its left at the man currently grasping its wrist, having pushed its arm away so that the lightsaber missed. Rosado stared back, his expression hard.
Ferguson stood frozen in fear, watching as the two Imperials in his shop stared each other down, the humming of the lightsaber daring him to move and be cut by its blade.
Rosado was busy thinking about what a terrible mistake he had just made. Sure, he had just saved this mechanic's life, but now, certainly, the Inquisitor would turn its weapon on him instead.
The tension in the room was so thick it could have been cut with a knife.
And then, to the surprise of everyone, the Inquisitor switched the lightsaber off. Rosado gratefully let go of the black-gloved wrist. Ferguson hyperventilated.
The Inquisitor took a step backward...and then reignited the lightsaber and swung it toward the droid behind the counter, lopping off its head.
"6-B! NOOOO!" Ferguson yelled in anguish as the droid's body crashed to the floor.
"Come on, Rosado." And the Inquisitor returned the lightsaber to its belt as it stalked out of the shop.
Rosado looked at Ferguson, who had sunk to the floor and was weeping over the fallen body of his droid. "Um...I'm, uh...I'm sorry..."
As he hurried after the Inquisitor, another man entered from the same door Ferguson had come through earlier. "Ferguson! What happened?!"
"Alfonzo! 6-B is dead!"
"What?! Noooo!" Alfonzo fell to his knees on the droid's other side, and they hugged B-6 between them.
Rosado felt terrible, but he didn't have time to dwell on his feeling of guilt. As he caught up with the Inquisitor, it spoke without turning to look at him.
"That was a pretty gutsy move there, Officer Rosado."
He swallowed nervously. "Uh...Inquisitor, I, uh-"
"I didn't think anyone would have have that kind of bravery, especially not you." The black helmet turned to face him. "I respect that."
Rosado blinked as the anxiety flowed from his body like a wave. "Oh...thank you, Inquisitor. I, uh-"
"But you defy me like that again, and you will share that droid's fate."
Security Officer Rosado froze in his tracks, the color draining from his face. "Understood, Inquisitor. Understood."
"Steve" was the name of my OC from my Phineas and Ferb fanficing days. Most of his appearances have been scrubbed from the site, but you may still find him floating around here and there. I named an Ewok after him as a silly way of honoring him.
I was not intending on my coworker (Security Officer Rosado) becoming a supporting character in this story, but somehow, he worked his way in there and he will be showing up more.
Whoops. Oh, well. I kinda like him, and he deserves recognition for watching the entire SVTFOE series just so he could read this story. What do you think of Security Officer Rosado?
Next: New Parts