Two days later, Bright Jewel sector
Jedova meditated in his cell. He wished that the next food ration his captors would bring him would not be deadly moldy. He had not eaten anything for a few days, and he knew better than well that it had weakened him a lot. He still tried to endure it with the help of the Force until he would figure out how to escape as safely as possible in this extremely hostile and dangerous environment teeming with more criminals than the Jedi Temple's dojo teemed with Jedi during coinciding lessons. When the plan and the opportunity would present themselves, Jedova Wang would make his escape.
Still, time was slowly running out as the Jedi Master grew weaker day after day despite of the Force keeping him alive. Should he wait too long, he would become unable to escape.
The door opened up with a bang. Jedova opened his eyes and felt his innards squirm as he saw a piece of bread even moldier than the previous one. How can anything be moldier than yesterday's bread? the Jedi Master wondered desperately. Being hungry for long had gradually made his thoughts quite unpleasant. Rational thinking felt more difficult an hour after hour. The Force would keep him alive, but it could not keep the hunger from affecting his mind.
"Here's your dinner, honored Jedi Master," said the criminal who threw the bread, supposedly formally bowing to him. Jedova nodded to the criminal, who left without saying anything else.
Jedova hid the bread among the other pieces behind a secret hatch – a smuggler's cache that could avoid the attention of a customs officer but not a Jedi Master. The smell of mold had already become utterly stingy, so Jedova did not hesitate to shut the hatch. He felt impatience rising inside himself once again and took his lightsaber to his hand, still unable to understand how he had managed to retain it during the kidnapping. He had to get out of the cell now. He wondered if it was due to a temporary claustrophobia or something else but concluded that it did not matter. The only thing that mattered now was escaping and finding Degu.
He could not stand waiting anymore; his patience had come to an end.
He had to take a risk and run for it.
Jedova closed his eyes and took a deep breath, concentrating for a moment, concentrating on the moment. Then he opened his eyes, ignited his lightsaber and cut the door open with ease. The guard at the door jumped and triggered the alarm, then took his blaster. Jedova threw that weapon away with the Force and ran along the corridor for the hangar, navigation depending on the Force and his own senses. The alarm echoed in the narrow corridors.
A flood of humans came from the cross of the corridors.
"There's that Jedi!" one shouted.
"Where did he get a lightsaber?" another one shrieked.
"Whatever, Kroq gave the order to capture the Jedi!" someone yelled.
"Attack!" shouted the man in the frontline.
"Remember, catch him alive!" reminded the person next to him.
Jedova counted that about twenty humans had crowded to the corridor. He sought for a stronger connection to the Force through the frenzy that had released itself in his body, as if taking over his very essence to its tide to keep his legs moving, and ran towards the group of criminal which charged as a raid against him. Jedova collected all the strength he had left and, winged by the Force, he jumped over the heads of the criminals, coming down to his hands. Using his momentum to keep going, he made a somersault to get back on his feet and ran. The Force pulsing within, through and around him, the Jedi Master dashed forward with long steps like a whirlwind, leaving behind the criminals who were now gasping in astonishment.
Soon he found a hangar. That was when he had to stop and give up the wild power of the Force and adrenaline even though its power felt so good as it coursed throughout his body. As Jedova took his concentration back to himself, for a moment he feared that the Dark side had taken over him. Luckily, he felt only the Light, the usual, certain, bright power he had always channeled. The Dark stayed away. It was part of every being, but it stayed away from controlling Jedova, for the Light was in control of him. He had been free in the whirlwind among the storm made by the Living Force, feeling young and so alive again, but now it was time to return to the harsh reality.
The hangar's door was guarded by two Toydarians. Jedova bit his lip. Mind tricks did not work on them, so he could not use that to get through. The Jedi Master calmed his mind and let the Living Force tell him what was ahead. There were only two subjugated pilots unskilled in combat and two Whiphids who guarded them in the hangar. No one else.
That was it. The Force giving him more speed and strength than he could otherwise muster, Jedova jumped out of his hiding place, knocked out the guards with quick punches and opened the door with his lightsaber.
"What the..." one of the Whiphid guards started. The other one had already taken his lightwhip and tried to hit the Jedi Master with it before the human could get too close. The whip entwined around Jedova's lightsaber's purple-glowing blade and the other Whiphid guard shot at the Jedi Master. Despite of the pain, Jedova held onto his lightsaber and noticed how the pilots jumped to fight the other guard, making him drop his weapon from his hand. The guard keeping the lightwhip looked at his fellow and Jedova tugged his lightsaber towards himself, making the Whiphid fall over. Then he pushed both of them to the furthermost wall with the Force to make sure that they would not get back up anytime soon.
The pilots took one of the ships while Jedova took the one next to it.
"Thank you, Master Jedi," the pilots thanked the Jedi.
"I only did what a Jedi must do: help those in need. Go on and be careful. May the Force be with you," Jedova said and climbed to his ship, turned it on and left behind the pilots.
The warning of the Force came just in time for Jedova to turn his ship away just enough to lose only one engine. The two pilots were not so lucky; their ship blew up into pieces. Jedova winced when he felt the deaths of those two young and hopeful pilots in the Force.
He could not do anything else than turn his gaze forward and go on, saying the solemn goodbyes to those two pilots whose names he would never find out.
/Star Wars (c) Lucasfilm, any characters you cannot find on Wookieepedia, Veledos, Veledosians and their language (c) Me/
