Hello my faithful readers,

and sorry for that long delay! I am really sorry it took me so long to post the next chapters, but be assured, I really had a lot of stress in my everyday life (and still have). Also, the two new chapters (5 and 6) are longer than the ones before, and I hope to set myself a standart length-wise inbetween 1000 and 5000 words per chapter. Of course, the story is long not finished with those chapters, it is merely beginning. As most of what happens is already known from the movies, I tried to keep the copying of that as short as possible and focus more on Nyé's development. Soon, after the rebellion destroyed the Death Star as we all know will happen, I will get away from the setting of the movie more and more and develop a parallel story-line. Until then, I have to beg your forgiveness for being boring.

I hope you still have fun, please do comment critically, as I seek to improve both my writing and my English! (I liked the chapters better in German, but you probably would not understand, so I had to translate and change them for you.)

5. Freedom

Then she sat there, all alone in a dark, undersized cell. It occurred to her not even for a second whether she had been frozen for five weeks or five months. The difference had lost its significance to her. She was to be put to death sooner or later, and till then there was nothing left but to doze away in thoughts and memories. As everyone who had ever meant something to her was dead, there was no more need to agonize or fight on their behalf. The galaxy had turned into a devoted imperium without any resistance, therefore she would not be disturbed here no half-heartedly rescue missions and no company. Silence, peace, and someday an execution. The young woman abandoned any self-pity before it could emerge and wallowed in beautiful memories of golden days instead.

Had she laid there for days? Weeks? Hours?
Blasts hissed through the corridor in front of her cell, hitting the walls occasionally by the sound of it. If the imperium was peaceful and well-regulated, who then would break into a prison by force? This did not make any sense at all! Vader had told her...

A tiny voice in her inner self cried out: So what? He lied, he lied to you!
I am simply too naive. Ny grit her teeth, striking some lose strands of filthy hair off her forehead. The exchange of fire continued.
Involuntary, more driven by her instincts than by will, she kneeled next to the door, laying her ear against the cold metal. What in the name of the force was she doing?

Old reflexes, that had to be it. Was she really relying on one of the blasts to hit the lock? What nonsense! Her rational side wanted to stand up, turn away and forget about the incident. She did not even think about calling for help. She was able to hear the blasts because the walls were being concussed. Vader's cellblocks for a sure thing were soundproof.

A small explosion blew the lock up. There were tiny splinters flying about the corridor for a certainty. Nyé tried to claw into the metal of the door with her fingernails, but of course without getting the door to open. Not even scratches were left where she had attacked it, instead her fingertips went bloody and her nails broke. Panting heavily, she stopped her senseless efforts to think for a moment. She was a technician, wasn't she? She had been made fun of by many of her friends because she studied technical finesses in the age of droids. But she herself had always thought that those practical little machines needed someone to attend to them as well. Besides, droids never disappointed or betrayed their masters as human beings did only too often. Some of those little machines had become her companions working together with her. Her human brain was able to see relations where the best droids failed. Instead, they often could accomplish a great many things Nyé could not do just like that. She sighed, remembering her last partner fondly. R2 and she had been quite the team!

But memories were not for the here and now, she ordered herself. Before the carbonite had frozen her, her belt buckle had still worked as a magnet. Hastily she stripped off the belt, moving an almost invisible switcher and - bull's eye! The tiny electromagnet was ready to go! As she put it to the door, she created a small, but nevertheless perfect handle. Pushing the sliding gate open was now a quite easy thing for her to do. She switched the magnet back off and put the belt on while moving already.

This corridor had for sure been the setting of a gunfight. There were no guards in sight right now, but there were blast holes everywhere. Almost all of the cells' locks had been wrecked, that much she could see even while rushing down the corridor. Well, now at least she remembered the reason for her instinctive reaction: those electronically locked doors could be opened by the strong ionic impulse of a laser-shot very easily, destroying the lock in the explosion. This was a method she of course had never seen in action, as it was usually quite easy to open them via switch anyway. Also the shot needed to go by really close; otherwise it would show no effect whatsoever. Before she could rejoice on her luck and the use she could finally draw of her technical knowledge, she heard steps, coming out of a direction that was supposedly the entrance to the cellblock, indicating soldiers coming closer.

Hectically Ny looked about. Was there no other exit? Cellblocks used to have only one regular way to the outside; of course, no one was supposed to get out just that easily. They had only one exit - and - waste chutes!

Her gaze fell on one of those chutes, just twenty steps backwards. Whoever had entered the cellblocks without admission had taken that way for sure. The blast holes ended there. Other than that and the logical assumption that the way out would be already fought free there, it was the only chute she could see on the whole corridor.

She breathed through one more time and jumped right in, trying to ignore the abhorrent smell that engulfed her at once as she rolled off on a pile of rubbish. While she was still fighting back the urge to vomit right there and then, she was rewarded for her efforts: the escape hatch was wide open! Yes, the intruders had definitely taken this way out before her. She followed them as quickly as possible. Why not let them clear her way out?

As soon as she would have had exited the building, she would not be held back by neither clone nor battle droid. Thanks to her work for Padmé Amidala, she knew Coruscant's streets like the back of her own hand.

But as soon as she had left the garbage depot, hoping she would not be smelled by the guards from afar, she had to realize she was nowhere near Coruscant. In fact, she was not on a star cruiser either. When she finally found a corridor with windows to look out, she realized she was in bigger trouble than she had possibly imagined. They had moved her to a space station, and from the looks of it, it was as huge as a small moon. How fast might they have managed to build this thing, she wondered. How long do you need to build a space station like this? Should it have been a secret separatist project for a long time, not discovered by the Jedi? This was most unlikely! Therefore she had been frozen at least some months. Maybe even half a year. Quite long, all in all.

No time to stay standing here and stare out of a window. In a hurry, she decided what corridor to follow next. Anxious, almost panicking, her blood started to circulate faster. But her fear at least slowed the rush of her thoughts down a little for now. There would hopefully be time to answer questions later.

The most important thing for now was to disappear unchallenged. She needed to get away of Darth Vader, afterwards she would be able to travel to Coruscant, or Naboo, to Alderaan or even to some rugged Outer-Rim Planet, even to Tatooine if she cared to. She tried to figure out her directions while walking, but it was no good. Doping out this sort of stuff was droid s work. How was she supposed to find the hangar?

Straight ahead, she decided, just move straight ahead. Following these outer corridors will take you to a hanger sooner or later. The dimensions of this space station were even larger than she had feared and far more confusing than she had dared to imagine. One could really get lost

WUMM. A red blast detonated exactly next to her head. Startled, Nyé turned around, noticing the two clone soldiers that had discovered her, and ran in the opposite direction. Using the next side corridor she managed to get out of the line of fire for the next few seconds. Behind her, red sparks pinged through the air, detonating at the walls, the ceiling and the floor. Gasping, Nyé hasted further on, taking another turn, and another, further on, further...

She wasn't alone any longer. Out of the corridor she had just rushed into, two humans ran towards her in equal hurry. They were young, only slightly older than herself: a young woman whose brown hair had been curled to snails above her ears, and a lad who, according to his garment, came from some farming region of the Outer Rim. They noticed Nyé at the same moment, stupefying shortly. And then, just behind them, soldiers entered the corridor, exactly as behind herself! Nyé broke adrift of that odd moment and stormed towards them, just like they did. A tiny, slim corridor opened up to her left, leading further into the inner chaos of the station. Without thinking twice, Nyé took that only escape out of their dangerous situation, reaching it first. She could hear the others following up directly behind her. They reached the next hall, an empty vault more likely, with stairs leading from it in all directions up- and downwards. Confused, Ny stopped for a moment. "Hurry, this way!" The boy at once dragged his friend with him, waving to her. Nyé did not stop to talk, but nodded and followed on as fast as her tired feet would lead her. Hopefully those two knew where they were going...

Panting, they stopped on the lower level, the boy turning to the right and leading them on. "This way we should be able to reach the hangar." The girls followed him closely.

"Oh, before I forget it - I'm called Nyé." Somehow she felt she could trust them. If not them, who else? The lad turned around, smiling, as they reduced their step to a normal pace in order to make less noise.

"Luke Skywalker. And this is Leia." Nyé noticed full well that he did not tell her the last name of the young woman, just as she had held back her own. "Are the two of you siblings?"

Leia did not look happy about that thought at all.

"Why, do we look like it?" Luke just shook his head, but gave Ny yet another smile.

They turned left, almost rushing into two more figures. Nyé recognized a man, about twenty-eight years old, and a colossal, red-haired wookie wearing a cartridge belt. The memory-flash of her dream came back to her mind: the wookie looked very similar to the one she could not remember, yet dreamt of, and therefore had most likely met someplace before.
"Don't be afraid, he won't harm you."Luke motioned her over, ignoring the doubtful lift of his companion's eyebrow.

The older man, after having gazed Nyé all over, just asked: "What kept you?"

"We outran some old friends", murmured Leia hastily. She was still a bit out of breath because of the previous haste.

"What are we still waiting for then?" The younger one of the men fluttered, obviously nervous. His friend, the one Nyé did not know the name of, took Leia's elbow without another word, dragging her with him, while the wookie waved with his gun and bellowed something encouraging in Nyé's direction. She just nodded again, passing him and staying close to the three other humans. Two more turns, and then Nyé could see straight into the hangar. It was one floor underneath, behind a huge glass screen.

The older man sighed relieved. "There she is."

Luke took out his comlink and pressed the send button. "C-3PO, do you copy?" The answer sounded tinny, a synthetic voice. Droids, and by the number, I know at least one of them.

"Yes, sir." - "Are you safe?" - "For the moment. We're in the main hangar, across from the ship."

Luke smiled, his anxiety mixing with relief as well. "We're right above you. Stand by."

Nyé recognized a small space ship that looked more like a collection of junk than anything flyable. But as a technician she already figured that the pilot had just repaired it on his own all the time, probably leaving it with far more extras than a new ship could have had. Looking at it, she was almost sure it would make some speed. Probably even more than simple light-speed.

Leia, however, did not seem to share her opinion. "You came in that thing? You re braver than I thought."

The pilot did not take her teasing lightly. Sarcastically, he grumbled: "Nice!" before he ordered them all: "Come on!"

They hurried down to the next hangar level, where they could all see something else apart from their ship and that was a group of storm troopers guarding it.

The man she had labelled with pilot in her mind groaned in disgust. "Didn't we just leave this party?" He then turned to face all of them, giving them expecting glances. "Anyone a plan how we get past those friends of yours?" Luke, Leia and the Wookie shook their heads, at once starting to wonder in order to make up a way to escape.

Nyé suddenly got the strange feeling that their escape was very important. There was something about them that told her they had spirit, the will to fight for more than just their lives. There was a bigger cause behind all this, and she was no longer part of it. His gaze still rested on her, as she started to talk, hesitantly still, but nonetheless determined. "If if I could get their attention, distract them for a short while, do you think you could make it out before they notice you?"

She still was not sure herself why she made that offer, perhaps because in her mind, she had already finished off her own life only some dreams past. "Just promise me you will end that galactic empire for me and re-erect the republic, alright?" Her fragile little smile was meant to seem ironic, yet she felt the full seriousness behind it. She was already stepping out of the corridor in order to distract the guards for those vital few seconds.

Leia made the decision for her, taking Nyé's hand resolutely in her own. "The rebellion is in need of people like you. But not like this."

Luke nodded forcefully. "Exactly, stop that bullshit. That might help us escape, but you'd be dead. We will find a solution for all of us, at least I hope that. Is the ship alright?"

"Seems okay, if we can get to it. Just hope the old man got the tractor beam out of commission." The pilot answered without thinking twice.

"What old man?" Nyé never received an answer to that question, they obviously were too focused on how to get pass these new enemies without being caught. As they were still hesitating, the clones suddenly started to move away all by themselves.

"We we seem to be more than just lucky here..." Nyé did not trust this opportunity at all.

"That's our chance, come on!" urged the pilot, and they all ran across the open space of the hangar towards the unusual space ship, when Luke suddenly stopped to look where the clones had gone.

"Ben?" Although her instincts told her to just run off with the other three, Nyé stopped right next to him and turned her gaze the same direction. Darth Vader was battling an old Jedi. The girl was sure she had never seen this particular Jedi before, but something about him was oddly familiar. Luke s repeated shouting of the Jedi s name paid off badly as the clones turned their attention back to them and at once opened their fire. Nyé had long stopped to worry or wonder, she just reacted, taking Luke s arm; she tried to drag him away to the safety of the ship. The Jedi was already as good as dead; there was no sense in getting them killed out of compassion or mourning, regardless of how dearly a friend he might be. Behind them, Leia and the pilot were shouting at them to hurry up, to get the hell moving. And then it happened. One of the blasts hit her, toppling her over and causing a burning pain in her left arm. She struggled, but got up as fast as she could, forgetting about Luke. Instead she just took a run for the ship, trying to stop the bleeding with a strong grip on the wound. As she reached Leia and the pilot she turned back to look at the Jedi. She could not recall him, but something, something about him he turned his head, faced them, and a crooked smile appeared on his face as he lifted his lightsaber to a final salute in their direction. She could not help but stare at him, as he was immediately cut to half by Darth Vader.

Although she still did not remember where she might have seen him before, Nyé gasped in horror. Vader's red blade seemed to have cut right through her inner self instead of the Jedi. She felt a hurt she had experienced only a few dreams past, the hurt of losing a dear friend. Instead of gliding to the floor in a bloody mess, the Jedi just vanished into thin air. Luke, after screaming out in pain and anger, finally realized he was still being shot at, answering the clones fire. He looked as if he was sleepwalking, cut off of reality.

"Blast the door, kid!" Luke and Leia were still shouting at their friend in turns, to blast the door in front of the now approaching Darth Vader, to come on, to join them and safety. Luke had at least heard that last command; he shot the control of the blast door, and then finally turned around to enter the ship with them.

"Come on!" Nyé's voice almost cracked. As soon as he had reached the hatch, she started closing it, realizing that the wookie, Leia and the pilot had already rushed further on towards the cockpit.

"Let's hope the old man got the tractor beam out of commission, otherwise this will be a real short flight!" With this shout, the pilot reached his cockpit and sat down, starting all engines. Lights flashed on and the ship turned elegantly around its own axis, shot out of the hangar, away from the space station, away from Vader. Pale as a corpse, Ny slumped down, too confused and exhausted and relieved to wonder any more.