The hijacked turbolift hovered somewhere inside the Chimaera's elevator system, a subliminal note of tension from the repulsors underneath the deck signalling that it was being held motionless on manual override.
Anakin stood in the front of the 'lift car, thumb on the hold switch, borrowed uniform making him feel like some kind of Imperial bellhop. Behind him, his sister was tugging her boots back on, and Tahiri was cycling through Jaina's holdout weaponry, checking each blade and blaster for weight and balance to decide which ones she wanted to borrow. Fiver was plugged in to a computer panel, monitoring the Chimaera's security systems for any indication that the Imperials had located them.
Sneaking around an Imperial Star Destroyer turned out to be a lot like playing hide-and-seek in the old Imperial Palace when they'd been kids, or getting in and out of their parents' apartment without the adults noticing. The security setup in the corridors and turbolifts was pretty much identical, and so far, all Anakin and Jaina's old slicing tricks and workarounds seemed to be holding up.
"I think I'll take the little blaster," Tahiri smiled, toying with Jaina's compact holdout pistol. Aunt Mara had encouraged them to imitate her habit of carrying a concealed backup weapon - always use a firearm in a fist-fight if you can - but in contrast with the punch-over-subtlety designs that she preferred, Jaya's Gee-Tech favoured precision and discretion - and the balance and accuracy would suit his girlfriend's longer-range shooting style as well.
"Fine," Jaina nodded, pulling up the fasteners on her boots, and standing straight. "Better." She lifted her cuffed wrists, and looked down at the binders with a frown - they'd agreed she'd have to keep them on as long as she was impersonating a prisoner, but that didn't mean she had to like them, and she was evidently frustrated that she hadn't yet recovered enough Jedi focus to unlock them with the Force.
The other problem was that the binders limited the range of weapons she could handle easily. That was why Tahiri had stolen her holdout pistol and her throwing-knives, and Anakin was carrying her lightsaber - an elegant, minimal weapon with a slender cylindrical hilt strapped by a simple handgrip, a lot lighter than his own blade, but with a poise and balance that he liked.
That left Jaina with just her big DL-22 service pistol, a weapon she carried more for swagger than for practicality. She'd not been pleased by the fact that she needed Tahiri's help to fasten on her gunbelt, and her mood stayed dangerously focused as she checked she still had a clean draw of the weapon with her cuffed wrists, adjusting the fit of the belt so the hip-holster flapped like it was empty.
But she smiled as Tahiri handed her her vibroknife, and dropped it back into her boot sheathe.
"Everyone ready?" Anakin asked, though he already knew the answer.
"I'm still not sure why I'm not allowed to take these boots off," Tahiri teased. "You let your sister put hers on."
Anakin shook his head, and released the 'lift, feeling the change in mood from the repulsors as they accelerating towards the hangar bay, then the sensation of braking hard again.
"Remember," he said, as the door slid open. "We bluff as far as we can. I don't want to shoot anyone until we work out why they all seem crazy."
They stepped out and headed for their ship - Anakin on point, doing his best impression of an officer, swaggering his walk, and carrying his sister's lightsaber handgrip like a trophy in one gloved hand. Jaina followed, not having to pretend that she was annoyed by the way the wrist-binders threw off her casual pace, with Tahiri and Fiver taking up the rear.
The Yavin Turtle was up ahead, with the boarding ramp still raised, and Lowie's shaggy silhouette visible up front in the cockpit - that was a good sign, though the ship seemed oddly under-guarded without a pair of Stormtroopers standing at attention on the shiny hangar deck, framing the space where the ramp would go when it was lowered.
Anakin's expression hardened as he glanced around the hangar, and saw that the Imperial reception committee had simply pulled back and regrouped. There were Army techs in armoured jumpsuits, setting up tripod-mounted E-web cannons and portable blast shields, grey-uniformed officers looking anxiously at the Yavin Turtle's underslung turret guns. Behind them, a column of Stormtroopers was marching out onto the deck, with more reinforcements visible in the corridors beyond them.
Great.
A girl in an officer's uniform turned to face them, smart and straight, with fair hair tugged back in a tail underneath her uniform cap. Anakin glanced at her rank insignia, not sure what grade the square lapel badge and the silver code cylinders at either shoulder symbolised, but after a moment's hesitation, she saluted him, which he returned with a brisk nod.
"Are you in command here?" he asked.
"Yes sir. Lieutenant Vane, 112th Assault, sir. We were waiting for Major Tierce... has there been a change of plan?"
"This is one of the Rebels we captured," Anakin improvised, gesturing at Jaina. "We think we can use her as leverage to get a team aboard and negotiate their surrender."
"Negotiate?" The Imperial officer looked surprised by that. "With Rebels, sir?"
"They can be reasonable," he shrugged, feeling strangely uneasy in his Imperial disguise. "You just need to find the right ways to motivate them." Turning to Jaina, he gave a sharp gesture. "Come on, prisoner, let's go and talk to your Rebel friends."
Jaina shook her head, simmering with an irritation that wasn't exactly acted, just easily misunderstood. But she fell in step as he led the way across the deck towards the freighter, with Tahiri and Fiver following in place.
All going according to plan, he thought, though if he was honest, he was making this up one step at a time.
The fact that the Imperial officer, Lieutenant Vane, had decided to accompany them made things a little trickier, but they were half-way to the Turtle now.
Lowie looked down from the cockpit at them, a Wookiee shrug. Anakin answered with a gesture at Jaina, and another one towards the boarding hatch. Lowie still looked confused, but Anakin just looked hard at him for a moment. The Wookiee nodded, started pressing switches, and the ramp slid down.
The Imperial officer's eyebrows went up in response.
"You see," he grinned at her.
"Do you need support from my Stormtroopers, sir?"
"Stay back here, and if you hear blaster-fire or lightsabers, then send a team aboard," he answered. "But I don't think we'll need that." An encouraging smile, and then they were heading up the ramp.
"Your plans," Jaina said, shaking her head as they ducked inside the ship.
"What plans?" Tahiri asked, pausing as soon as she was safely out of view from the hatchway, leaning against the curving bulkhead of the corridor, lifting up a leg, and pulling off her boot. "Stars, I hate these things. Next time we steal Imperial uniforms, we ambush a female officer with some nice non-regulation boots."
Anakin grinned at her, but he turned to look at Jaina - with his back to the boarding ramp and his hands resting at his belt, the Imperials watching from the hangar deck would hopefully see one of their own officers talking down some Rebels. "You get to the guns," he said, "Get on the comm headset and tell Lowie to start powering up."
Jaina nodded, shaking off her wrist-cuffs as she darted for the gunwell ladder, sliding down to the turret. Tahiri had finished undressing, getting rid of the other boot, as well as her Imperial cap.
"Hey, that suited you," Anakin objected.
"Make me wear boots later," she laughed.
They hurried to the cockpit, Tahiri's barefoot movements a counterpoint to Anakin's booted stride. Lowie was already flicking switches, readying the Yavin Turtle to blast out without announcing anything by activating the main drives.
"Not too quick," Anakin said, leaning over and glancing out onto the deck, surreptitiously keying commands into the co-pilot's console that powered up the deflector and the chaff launchers. "We need to make it look like we're negotiating your surrender." The Imperial girl was standing down there with a squad of stormtroopers. She was talking to another officer, a man who looked like he was trying to pull rank on her. Then she saw Anakin in the cockpit, and gestured at him, seeming cheerful, confident that her actions had been vindicated.
The other Imperial turned to look, scowling in disapproval.
"Kriff," Anakin said, recognizing Lieutenant Lannier, and knowing that the Imperial had recognized him as well. The sight of him starting to yell was counterpointed by a growled Wookiee announcement that they were ready to fly, and the music of the Yavin Turtle powering up.
The freighter lifted off the deck and spun around towards the exit - accompanied by the percussion of the hatch slamming shut, the dance of blaster bolts against the hull, and Jaina's voice crackling from the comm speakers, objecting that the manoeuvre wasn't giving her a clear shot at the Imperials.
Anakin grinned. "Punch it, Lowie."
He thought he caught a glimpse of Lieutenant Lannier's reaction, a narrow blur of grey in front of the blur of stormtroopers, as the Yavin Turtle sped straight out of the hangar, rolling sideways to dive down between a pair of closing TIE Fighters, then looping clear around the Star Destroyer's starboard bow.
The crazy corkscrew of a Wookiee evasive pattern, and the way they'd thrown themselves behind the TIEs, meant that the Chimaera's tractor-beam controllers had no way to get a grab-lock on them.
They punched clear, running for the stars, and the shadowed crescents of Bespin and its moons.