Chapter 8
"COME ON, THERES THE SHIP!" The Jedi screams as we run into the hanger. Hoards of storm troopers chasing after us, at the lead are a very angry looking inquisitor.
I twist around in my place on the girls shoulder so that I can get a better look at the ship that we are approaching. It's an old model, the types that I remember hearing the Jedi used to travel in for long missions. I'm shocked, apart from the empires ships (that I didn't see very often), it's the only ship that I've seen that doesn't have its parts showing. It gives it a more elegant look than what I'm used to. It's a very beautiful ship and is very well looked after but you can still clearly see it's age from the rust patches here and there and the paint, that was once red has faded.
"I don't think that we are going to make it." The guy running with us says whilst twisting round to shoot at the storm troopers. Each shot is deflecting off of the inquisitor anyway.
I feel myself holding my breath as I see that we have almost made it. My chest is tightening, my heart beating rapidly and I feel like my stomach is about to fall out of my arse, all while trying to stop myself from throwing up.
I watch as the door grows closer and closer, my hope intensifies that we might just make it until the fear that the girl carrying me might fall or that the platform might close becomes so strong that I almost convince myself I can see it moving. Finally the girl steps onto the ramp. Even then I'm waiting for something to pull me backwards.
The girl flings me onto the floor before she has even finished her assent up the ramp but I don't feel angry as I watch her run back out igniting her light sabre again and attack the inquisitor to try and keep him away from the ship. I then move myself out of the way as the alien rush's past me, to where I assume is the cockpit.
I try to climb to my feet so that I can reach the cockpit as well so that I can help out in some way but I crumble to the floor in a heap. I think that maybe crawling might be the best answer, so I begin commando crawling across the floor. I'm low enough that I can smell the metal floor and a little of the bleach used to clean it. As the ship is small, I don't get lost on my way to the cockpit and I don't have to crawl for too long.
"What do you need me to do?" I ask pushing myself up into a sitting position.
"Do you know how to fly a ship, I'm not so great." He says pushing buttons in what seems like a random way.
"Of course I've flown loads!" I lie through my teeth. Of course I have flown but never in space and never in a proper spaceship. The alien nods and helps me up onto the captain's chair before then rushing out to the cannons.
I look at the control panel and immediately start to regret my decision. I push that down and try to remember what Biggs taught me not so long ago. At first I push the wrong buttons trying to take off but closing and then reopening the ramp twice as my stomach flips. When I do manage to get the ship off the ground I have to shake my head to try and get rid of the pressure that builds up in my ears. When I finally take off properly, I fly as low as I can as I try to fly over to the girl who rescued me earlier. She is still locked in battle with the inquisitor.
I jump when I hear static over the communicator built into the ship and then the deep voice of the man with the loud sound of blaster shots being fired in the background.
"Don't worry about her she will catch up, we need to get out of here." He demands over the over com. I think about arguing with him but something tells me to believe him.
I nod more to myself then to him and close my eyes and take a big breath in and out, allowing a sense of calm to fall over me. I open my eyes feeling far more relaxed than before. I smile and allow instinct to take over.
I move to the steering so that I make sure that I fly low and close to the girl and the inquisitor, when I remember what the guy said that she would catch up with us. I breathe in and out, still flying low when I turn the ship and move towards the exit. I'm still torn between trying to get out of there as soon as possible and waiting for the girl but I keep a steady move forward.
I look back and see her running from the inquisitor. As I begin to reach the force field my heart begins to race again and I lose sight of the girl. However, relief pours over me when I suddenly have a feeling that she has somehow got onto the ship. That feeling is confirmed when she runs into the cockpit just as the ship passes through the barrier.
My hands move across the controls faster than I thought possible. I regret that I won't be able to savour my first time in space, well the first time in space conscious.
"Do you know what you're doing?" The girl asks me, raising her eyebrows. I nod my head.
"What co-ordinates are we going to?" I ask her.
"I will do it." She says, moving and typing so that I can't see. I guess she still can't trust me then.
I sigh as I begin pushing buttons to move the ship into hyperspace. The stars start to move into blurry lines as we are flung foreword far away from the place of my captor and for the first time in however many weeks I feel like I can breathe properly.
I still have the feeling as if somehow we are going to be pulled backwards but that fear diminishes with each second that we pull further and further away from the start destroyer.
Even though I know that the empire aren't following us, I have a fear that a storm trooper or the inquisitor is going to jump out and grab me at any moment.
I start to relax as best I can in the hard chair and smile as I watch the stars travel past in a strange blur. I'm proud of myself for being able to actually escape. I sit in silence with the only sound being the hum of the ship and my steady breathing. I forget that the girl is still there until she breaks the silence, causing me to jump out of my skin.
"This your first time in space?" She asks giving me a soft smile. Recovering from my fright I grin back at her and nod.
"That obvious?" I ask and she smirks back. "I was never allowed to leave Tatooine, though I had dreams of running away and spending my life amongst the stars and never having to be tied down to anything. Must seem silly to you though." I smile softly, reminiscing the days where I had so many plans and dreams that I never thought I would come true and here I am living one of them.
"No it doesn't, I always seems to get a bit itchy when I'm in one place for too long. The masters call it young blood that has yet to be sated. So I completely understand." She gazes out the window with a distant look on her face.
"So why did you rescue me?" Looking at her there is no change in her body or face apart from her eyes that harden.
"I rescued you because it was the right thing to do." She says calmly and if it wasn't for the fact that I was paying attention I wouldn't have heard the slight stiffness in her voice.
"If that was the case, then why don't you free every person captured by the empire?" I ask. She doesn't seem to have an answer and is quiet for a moment before answering.
"There are something's that are better not to know." She half whispers, which of course, only pips my interest more as I frown at her words.
We go back to sitting in silence, this time it being far more awkward. I keep opening my mouth to say something but keep coming up with nothing.
Did I really make the right decision? Am I making a massive mistake, just going off with random people? People that I have never met, who say that they belong to an extinct religion. If I'm ever found after this, the empire would not hesitate to kill me.
I think this is all a bit much for me for one day. I think that I might be in need of some rest. I go to stand up, forgetting that my foot is injured. I collapse onto the floor in a heap with a scream.
"What happened?" The Jedi asks running to my side and helping me back up onto the captain's chair. "Oh, your foot." I grimace up at her.
"Here, let me look." She picks up my foot, takes off my boot, examining it. She then closes her eyes and runs her hand over it. At first I'm confused, and then I grit my teeth at the pain as she moves her hand over my ankle. I soon realise that the pain is slowly lowering until it disappears completely. I look down at it in shock, there is no pain and it doesn't look as swollen as it did before. I rest it on the floor testing it lightly at first and then add a bit more pressure. Still there is no pain, I stand up fully and discover my ankle can support all my weight without hurting.
"How the hell did you do that?" I ask her completely shocked.
"The force can do wonders." She answers whimsically smiling, I nod my head at her.
"Is there any way that I could go to the refresher and then get some sleep?" I ask, trying to remember the last time I washed properly where it didn't last less than two minutes.
"Down the corridor and to the left." She points and makes the left movement with her hand. I smile at her gratefully and make my way there.
As I walk inside I'm relieved to see that there is a double bed in the middle of the room. I jump onto it, laughing as I sink in, I can barely remember the last time that I slept on bed and not the floor. However, I need to wash before I can go to sleep so I reluctantly prise myself from the bed.
I walk over to the second door in the bedroom and I'm relived to see that it opens to a refresher so I don't have to go in search of it. I walk in, striping as I walk along. As I'm still in the clothes that I was captured in not only do they stink, they have all kinds of holes in them from use and my time training. Seeing the bin in the corner, I just throw them in there, however upset that I am that I can't burn them and dance around the fire naked.
I go to the cupboard and grin when I see a tooth brush and paste, so happy that I can finally brush my teeth in who knows how long and I moan in delight when I rinse out my mouth and I can feel how much cleaner they are.
Now I turn my attention over to the shower that is beckoning me closer but I hesitate when I catch a quick glimpse of my reflection. I walk backwards knowing that it's time to see what damage has been done to my body and I cringe at the first look.
There is grime covering all inches of my body, along with a smell of an unwashed banther assaulting my nose as soon as I took off my clothes.
My skin colour overall has lightened, drastically giving me a sickly look, add to that my checks have thinned out. I will admit that before, I did carry a bit of extra timber, but that has now gone and is replaced by a flat stomach and my ribs prodding out slightly. My eyes move to my lips that are now chapped with multiple cuts from where they have cracked. I move my eyes down to my hands and I feel them. I never had amazingly soft hands, my years on the farm and in the engines of ships ensured that, but they were never dry and scaly. Looking at them, they seem to have started to crack in places as well.
Underneath my blue, blood shoot eyes are massive black sacks making it look like I have two black eyes even though I don't. However, my body is still littered with bruises and cuts that haven't finished healing from my days training and ... what happened before that.
I shiver forcing myself to think of other things. I look at the tangled mop of hair that's circling my shoulders and flinch. My always unruly hair, that fell down to my mid back in waves, has gotten completely out of control and is now a large, tangled, frizzy, nest. I look at it and know that I have no choice but to cut it all off. I begin searching for a pair of scissors and grimace when my hands close around the metal.
I guess I have no choice now, I take a piece of my hair and snip it, I snip and snip and snip, not caring at all how it looks, just that I get most of the knotted parts as I can. Finally when I am satisfied I look properly in the mirror and see, for the first time what I look like with so little hair. It's awful, I have random tuffs of hair poking out at random intervals and it makes my face look wider but I can't seem to make myself care.
I turn around and jump into the shower, moaning at how nice the hot water feels on my skin and enjoy finally feeling like I'm actually clean, even though I have to scrub myself until red raw, just to get the grime off. My joy heightens as I spot a razor in the shower, I let out a little cheer before removing all the unwanted hair on my body, careful with the cuts and bruises that I already have.
It takes me so long in the shower that by the time that I have finished and am as satisfied that I am as clean as I can be, the water has gone so cold that I'm shivering and the water pressure has started to go down. I should be used to it really, on Tatooine there was never really an unlimited supply of water.
I turn off the shower and step out shivering as I go, still not used to the temperature drop of space even with heating. I walk past the sink and see all of my old hair matted and wet, I sigh, it might be best for me to leave it there as the bin is now full of my clothes and I don't want to get damp, tangled, old hair all over the floor.
I leave it and collapse into the bed (still naked) and snuggle into the duvet. I look to the side and see a pill and a glass of water next to it with a note.
This will stop any dreams.
Upon reading the note I look at the pill and the water. Just the thought of going to sleep and not seeing anything of my time with the empire is so pleasing that I take it without second thought before resting my head on an actual pillow. I'm so tired that I'm asleep in seconds.