Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Note: Hello again! Here's the next chapter for you all! Thanks to all my readers and reviewers. Your support means a lot. And, as always, a huuuuge thank you to Liisiko.

CHAPTER 34 - Spider

Location: Medical Station

Galen dropped to the deck and edged away as the Rogue Shadow made its hasty retreat. He listened to the dull roar of its engines fade away as the gap between them increased, activating the com-link device to maintain communication.

"Your signal is strong." Juno confirmed over the link.

"There's no shuttle."

"Strange, I would have thought this to be our best bet."

"Can I reach the other bay from here?"

There was a pause as she checked the schematics. "Yes. You can."

"I'm not familiar with the layout of these stations." Galen continued. "Are you able to guide me through?"

"That's what I'm here for."

He made it to the far side of the docking bay, aware of the dark shapes of the dead around him, and peered through the gap in the doors that hadn't quite managed to close. The gap was narrow but he managed to squeeze through sideways. The corridor beyond was lit with a strip of very dim lights and, half consumed by shadow, were more lifeless bodies. He sucked in a breath to close off the horrific smell and stepped carefully over them, not breathing again until he made it to the far side. The room beyond – a huge circular waiting area – was mostly dark, though emergency lights glared above the exits. Piled in those exits were dozens and dozens of bodies.

The empty silence spoke in volumes. There was no one left alive.

"What are you seeing?" Juno's voice was hushed.

"They're all dead." He replied.

More bodies lay scattered and broken across the room, the smell of it nauseating. Men. Women. Children. It took all of his strength not to gag as he dropped to a knee beside one of them, seeking the cause of death. The deep scores in the woman's abdomen were unmistakable.

"The dark clone was here." He confirmed to Juno, trying to sound unaffected. "I don't think we're going to find any survivors."

"Is it wise to be speaking? If he's still here…" She trailed.

"He's not. I would have sensed him."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"But why would he leave?" She asked. "Something isn't right about this."

Galen had to admit that Juno was right. If this had been executed as a trap to lure him, then it made no sense to up and leave before the trap was sprung. So what did this all mean? It hardly seemed likely that there was some other Sith out there mindlessly slaughtering and this certainly wasn't Vader's handiwork. But who else – other than Vader – could have convinced the dark clone to up and leave his post here? Or maybe there hadn't been a plan at all. Maybe he'd simply lost himself to madness and the unfortunate medical station had been close by as his mental state deteriorated.

"I'll have PROXY watch for any signs of ships approaching."

"Thanks, Juno."

He pushed himself back to his feet and sought the room for the exit he needed. Thankfully, Juno was quick to track his route, guiding him across to one of the closest doorways. Her voice was low and steady in his ear, distracting him from the awful silence of the place. He did his best to ignore the fact that he was stepping over the dead in order to get into the next corridor.

"You want to take the corridor all the way down to the end. There should be an elevator at the far side but it's out of action."

"Any workarounds?"

"There's a maintenance shaft that runs parallel with it. If you can get into it, there'll likely be a ladder that will take you up to the next level. After that, it's simply a matter of following the corridor around to the inpatients waiting room. The docking bay for prioritized patients should be easy to find from there."

He didn't respond to that, moving swiftly but silently down the corridor. The elevator's lights were out, confirming that it would be unresponsive and he searched the area for the maintenance duct. It was a small door with a keypad set into its center. The keypad was dark, too, which meant that with the application of the Force the door came away with little trouble. He ducked through the gap and looked up.

It was in almost complete darkness, except for a small square of light somewhere far, far above.

He started to climb, wincing at the sound of his boots against the metal rungs. With the station so quiet, they advertised his coming and though he doubted there was anyone left alive, it felt strangely disrespectful to interrupt the choking silence.

"You're almost there." Juno warned him and, sure enough, he could see the square of light that indicated a door. He lifted an arm and let loose a burst of Force energy that buckled the door and blasted it clear out of its frame.

He vaulted out of the maintenance shaft and tumbled effortlessly back to his feet, taking a moment to gain his bearings. The lights on this level were just as dim, though there seemed to be more of them lit up. Thankfully, he didn't need Juno's help to navigate in the right direction, guided by the signs just visible in the emergency lighting. He was certain that if he'd taken a wrong step, she would have alerted him to the fact.

"How much of the station is damaged?" He queried as he went.

"The level above you is the only other which is accessible. All other levels are locked down. If there's going to be any survivors they won't be too far away. We may find that the rescue team has already done its search."

"If they're still—" Distantly, Galen thought he heard the sound of clanging metal and paused mid-sentence to look over his shoulder. Only when he looked back did he notice some bad scarring on one of the door frames; mostly hidden from approach. He hastened back to check out the damage.

"Galen?"

"Sorry, I thought I heard something." His hand traced the sharp, jagged mark in the doorframe as he leaned into the consultation room. It was too dark to see much of anything so he ignited the blue saber and swung it up high above his head.

He did a double take.

Just above the doorway a hole had been torn into the ceiling; metal pried open. The floor beneath was strewn with shards of metal and there was a long score in the paneling beside it. At the far side of the room a man in scrubs sat back against the wall, his head bent to one side, arms limp. The hole gored through his middle was so large that Galen could see the wall through it.

And the blood…

It had dried to a horrendous dark puddle that had pooled out across the floor.

He backed out of the room, mind whirling with the possibilities of what could have killed that man in such an unusual fashion. The wounds hadn't been cauterized, so they weren't made by a saber or blasters.

"Galen?" Juno's worried voice urged.

"There…might be something else here." He replied, edging up the corridor towards his destination. Perhaps there had been a plan after all. He quickened his pace then, using the Force to augment his speed as he darted down the corridor to the second docking bay. This was one smaller but the destruction mirrored that of the first. So many dead. A damaged ship squatted; skewed on its landing struts, partially blocking another craft from view.

Thankfully, the obscured ship was the one they had been searching for.

"I've found the shuttle." He informed Juno, crossing over to where the loading ramp stood open. The ship had been powered down and as he leapt up into it, he called out a greeting. He did not expect a reply and neither did he get one. "It's a maintenance craft. They must have been engineers."

"Makes sense if they thought the emergency was due to a mechanical failure of some kind."

"Well there's no one here now." He leaned into the cockpit and found it empty. It struck him as odd that the pilot wouldn't have stayed to watch over the craft whilst the others carried out their investigation."

And then the com-channel crackled and a disjointed voice came over the link. He jolted forwards to respond.

"Starkiller here. I read you."

The voice hissed over the line in sheer relief. "Thank the stars. I thought we'd been abandoned. Who is this? Where's our pilot?"

"I don't know. He's not here. I'm here to rescue the rescue team." Oh the irony.

"Who? Wait, how many of you are there?"

"Just me on the ground."

There was a moment of shocked silence and then he heard hasty whispers as the team dissolved into panic.

"Listen." Galen tried to bring the conversation back under control. "Let me worry about that. What's the situation? Where are you?" He had to repeat the last question twice before the man responded directly.

"We're trapped. It'll take more than one man to get us out."

And then there was uproar and a loud clatter that suggested the device had just been knocked from his hand.

Gritting his teeth, he turned away and renewed communication with Juno. "Is it possible to get a lock on their position?"

"Working on it." He could hear the concentration in her voice. "Yes. Got it. Okay, third level, close to the elevator. I'd suggest going back the way you came in and continuing up the maintenance shaft.

"Is there a docking bay on that level?"

"No. They'll need to bring any survivors down to their ship. There's no other way to collect them without blasting a hole in the side of the station."

Hoping that wasn't going to be too much of a problem, Galen abandoned the shuttle and headed back down the way he had come, not pausing for a moment. And then he was climbing up to the next level, aware of the passing of time and of how little remained. He wondered whether the team had managed to find any survivors at all, or whether they had waded fruitlessly through the bodies of the dead.

He emerged onto the third level into the same gloomy light and took a moment to listen for any tell-tale signs of trouble – or perhaps even the ruckus of the rescue team. In this corridor more people lay lifeless in the shadows, the walls warped and badly damaged from attacks made with the Force. Here a few men in security uniforms lay dead, their blasters still clutched in their cold hands.

A short way up, another gaping hole had torn most of the floor away, forcing Galen to jump across to continue on his way. It seemed whatever had gouged that man on the level below had also made its way through this level, too.

The corridor was shorter than the others he had been down and passing through a badly damaged doorway he stepped into a huge rectangular space with a wide, sweeping window looking out into beautiful, eternal space. A row of chairs had been positioned to look out at the view whilst further back; sections of the room had been partitioned off with temporary screens.

He sensed life.

"They're in the room across from you. If you give me a moment, I'll try and get the door open." Juno confirmed what he had felt.

Galen picked his way carefully across to the huge blast doors; already trying to estimate how long it would take to carve a hole into them with his lightsaber. At his feet, close to the doorway, a strange looking droid with arrow-shaped eyes sparked and hissed from where it had been torn in two.

He threw out his senses, touching along the shadows with his mind for any sign of danger. But there was nothing at all. Whatever had been here was gone now.

"Juno, how—"

The mechanism in the door kicked into action, answering his half-formed question.

Blasters fired and his fighting instincts kicked in immediately; the first shot searing past his head as he dodged; the heat of it scorching his hair. The second was reflected back from the hissing blue saber now alive and ready in his palm.

The word 'wait' was barely out of his mouth before more blaster fire came his way, forcing him to roll to the side to avoid being clipped. Tumbling back to his feet he outstretched a hand and caught the one attacking within a bubble of Force energy. It was a droid much the same as the one already lying broken at his feet. Galen's fingers curled into talons as he held the energy close, suppressing his attacker.

"We can't control it. It thinks you're a target." An alarmed voice piped up, alerting Galen to the number of people cowering behind the temporarily pacified droid. His fingers closed instinctively and the Force crushed the droid into a useless lump of metal.

The saber in his hand shut off and Galen straightened, his dark eyes flashing across the frightened faces pressed back against the far side of the room. One tall, well built man stepped forwards to greet him and for all his size and strength, he moved cautiously. Something had definitely spooked them.

"Did you…get rid of it?" His voice was gruff.

"Get rid of what?"

"The droid." After a moment of silence the man scowled. "You didn't see it? The walker? It's still out there?"

"Close the doors! Close the doors!" A panicked shriek sent a wave of terror across the pale faces in the gloom. Galen wasn't sure if it was a warranted reaction or a delirious one. Either way, he could feel the levels of terror rising even as the spokesman turned to try and calm them.

And then, quite suddenly, they were no longer alone.

He wasn't sure whether he had heard or simply sensed the walker as it dropped into the large room behind him. And yet, as he turned to face it, it was already tearing across the room towards them; the lights in its Arachne-shaped 'face' gleaming at him through the dark.

A horrified, piercing scream had the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end and quite suddenly they were out of time. Ducking low, he Force-dashed past the walker, igniting his saber again to draw its attention from the people inside the room. What he didn't account for, however, was its agility.

The walker turned nimbly on a leg and in haste it sliced the air between side and elbow, tearing into his sleeve. He rolled to safety and bounded away.

"Juno!" He called, aware that the walker was closing in fast. "Shut the door!"

"What's going on?"

The walker was on him again and he dropped to the floor, sliding forwards to avoid its next lethal swing. The limb shrieked above his head, twisted and drove downwards forcing him to tumble to the side. He winced at the sound of metal on metal.

"Galen?"

With a palm to the ground he twisted back up onto his feet, brandishing his saber up across him in preparation to defend against another strike.

The walker crouched, its mandibles – a dozen triangular metal plates – clacking angrily together. It seemed almost to be sizing him up, adjusting its height so that it's 'eyes' fell parallel with Galen's.

And then it lunged with such speed that Galen's heart skipped a beat as he drew on the Force and threw a bone-shattering blow back at it. It struck the walker so hard that it was thrown back onto its rear limbs, shrieking as it battled to regain its footing.

"You need to shut the door. There's a walker down here!" He replied to a worrying Juno, back-flipping to safety as the lithe walker came at him again.

"What about you?"

"I'm—" He swung his saber and felt the impact as the blade bounced off of the walker's lancing limb, leaving a blackened groove in its wake. "—keeping it distracted." He ended, trading blows with the excessively violent machine.

"You want me to shut you in with that thing?"

"Juno." His tone was almost pleading as he put more distance between him and the walker, alighting a huge shelving unit and dropping down the other side. He looked back over his shoulder to see the walker clearing it in a single leap and knew, in that moment, that outmaneuvering the machine was going to be near impossible.

Allowing himself to fall backwards he raised both lightsabers to fend off the walker's dangerous limbs as its body came crashing down over his. He heard the screech of saber against metal and peered through the blaze of blue and green light to where the walker fought to break through his defenses.

Off to his right, the huge doors finally slammed closed; securing the rescue team and survivors safely inside.

Straining to keep the walker's attack from hitting its mark, Galen twisted his wrists; wrenching the lightsabers sharply in opposing directions. The tip of that sharp limb was carved deeply but still it had not been severed. The mechanical Arachne twisted free, giving a mechanical shriek of rage, and Galen was rolling out of harm's way, shouldering between the screens to put as much cover between him and the walker as possible.

The screens, however, were hardly enough to hold the mechanical monster at bay. It crashed through them with all of the uncouth ferocity of a bull rancor, sending equipment and partitions flying in large broken chunks.

Galen had the advantage, at least, that the walker could only do real damage at close range. He'd noticed a hollow in its 'chest' which looked as if it had been made to hold a laser of some description. Fortunately, the laser had been removed or never installed in the first place. Unfortunately, the walker's lithe, agile form was so light that its speed was unlike anything Galen had ever witnessed in a droid.

He felt it closing in again and dug a heel to pivot around and meet it head on. His blue saber sliced the air but the walker reacted instantly, spinning as it leapt so that it landed 'feet' first on top of a huge, lifeless generator.

He threw up a hand, summoning Sith Lightning and sent a bolt of the blue energy cracking against the walker's head. Its body convulsed for a moment and then it launched at him, tilting its body so its legs turned towards him like spears. He brought the energy into a tight shield around him and felt the sudden flare of pressure as the machine bounced off and hit the ground in a sprawling mass of limbs.

He thrust his arm forwards and released the hilt of his activated saber, using the Force to guide it in a downwards arc. The blade cut down between the plates along its midsection and then returned to his waiting hand. But if he had thought that the attack would slow the droid down, he was about to be sorely disappointed.

After a strange lurching motion, the walker was back on its feet, pressing the attack without hesitation. Unlike Galen, it had no 'survival' instinct imprinted in its programming. Only the need to maim and kill. Each stab of its serrated legs ripped grooves into the ground as he dodged, making the footing precarious. Galen's arms burned as he moved to intercept and dodge each attack, his sabers bouncing off of the droid's metal shell with an angry spitting sound. Even his most powerful swings only seemed to carve a saber-thickness deep. If he could just take out some of its legs, its movement would be hindered enough that it wouldn't pose such a threat.

And the time…they were running out of time.

The mismatched lightsabers flared in his hands now and he spun, arms extended, to clip the walker as it descended on him. The contact drew a spray of bright sparks that showered down on his unprotected head.

Each sharp jab made at him was parried, filling the air with the acrid smell of burning metal. Curls of smoke rose upwards from its damaged limbs, but it's many-eyed 'face' gleamed intently – as if it sensed it was getting the better of its opponent.

Galen lunged with a high-sweeping strike and the walker immediately dropped low, its legs adjusting so that its body hovered just above the ground. Then the mechanisms on its limbs released, thrusting it upright and forwards so that it slammed into Galen's chest and sent him flying across the room. He smashed into one of the untouched screens and flipped head over heels, using the Force to control his fall so that he landed on his feet – winded but in one piece.

But he barely had time to draw breath before the walker was on him again and this time its first lunge drew a bloody streak across his arm. He danced out of danger, swinging sabers elaborately to distract the droid long enough to strengthen his defensive posture. Then he instigated the attack, launching in on a tirade of perfectly-executed twists and spins, one saber held offensively whilst the other defended his side from any surprise attacks the walker might think to launch.

The walker gave another lunge and he leapt to safety, landing acrobatically behind it. Its body reared up to follow him and as it turned over itself, its legs twisted so that it landed back on its feet despite its body being 'upside down'. The nimble flexibility of its double-jointed design was most certainly a threat and more than a little impressive.

And then the metal spider rushed him, misaiming another strike that had its leading limb sinking deep into the grille beside him. It struggled for a moment to free itself, giving Galen ample opportunity to regain control of the fight, cutting a smoking 'X' into the intricate chest plating designed to flex and move and protect the circuitry beneath.

They danced circles around each other, the walker almost landing a string of blows that Galen had to dodge at almost blinding speed. It seemed to him, almost, as if the walker was improving; getting faster and more accurate.

Or perhaps he was just tiring?

He thrust a blast of Force power forwards with one hand but the walker dodged, driving forwards at an incredible pace. Galen barely had time to throw himself clear, reaching out to grab a piece of debris with the Force and bring it slamming down. Unfortunately he had underestimated the impact at which it landed and when the walker dodged it the floor ruptured; its structure having been vastly compromised from the sustained attacks.

Both Galen and the Walker went down with the debris.

"How many of you are there?" Juno asked when she finally made contact with the trapped rescue team.

"Twenty-five in total. Twelve of those part of the rescue crew. Thirteen survivors."

"All able bodied?"

"Unfortunately not. Four will need carrying and a lot of my team were injured trying to search the station for any signs of life. We were not prepared for what we walked into. That thing this Starkiller is fighting killed three of my men. Good men, they were! If it hadn't been for the doors, we'd all be dead. I don't much like our chances."

"Your chances are just fine." Juno's voice was firm. "Only four are wounded?"

"There are others but I'd say they could get by on their own two feet."

"You'll need to get back down to your ship. We're running out of time but as soon as the danger has been eliminated, Starkiller will guide you down."

"I don't think we'll have enough space for everyone." He continued in a hushed voice, clearly concerned about inciting more panic.

"There is room on my ship." Juno informed. "Keep everyone calm. I'll inform you when we're ready to open the doors."

For Galen, his fall was lucky in that a sheet of curved durasteel had fallen over him; acting as a shield against anything else that had come down after. He was still seeing stars as he absorbed his new surroundings on the level below. The walker was there, standing quite still – as if it had gone into standby.

Was it waiting for him to make the first move?

From the gaping hole above them a sheet – that had been dangling from a hook of twisted metal – dropped down into the room and the walker was on it in seconds, leaping to snatch it from the air. Its lethal limbs tore it to pieces until it was satisfied that it was 'dead'.

Galen watched in disbelief as the walker settled back down to wait – just like a spider waiting for unsuspecting prey to fall into its trap.

Realization struck him then. The droid did not use sound or regular sight to locate its enemies. It used movement. If he stayed perfectly still the odds are that he would never be found. But, if he tried to move…

Bracing himself for the theory to be proved correct, he drew upon the Force and poured the energy out across the room, touching over objects to use as a distraction. And, when he had eight items of decent size, he enveloped them with the Force and hefted them smoothly up into the air.

The walker came to life immediately, turning a complete circle as if struggling to decide which 'enemy' to pick off first. And one at a time Galen hurled the objects at the arachne machine with as great a force as he could muster. It did its best to twist and dodge, managing to knock some of them away. Others struck hard, denting panels in a way that made them awkward to move; hindering its motions.

If he could just locate the motion sensors and destroy them…

With a final effort he dragged up three chunks of twisted debris and hurled them, simultaneously, at the walker. It reared to strike but two of the three pieces struck hard against one of its back limbs, warping the joint that refused to flex back into its optimum shape. The walker gave a mechanical screech as it tried to move the damaged servo and then Galen was back, lightsabers in hand.

The walker whirled to attack and Galen ducked expertly beneath its swings, tumbling into a roll beneath it with sabers still active. As he span, the blades licked up, catching the walker on the underside.

The walker ducked it's 'head' and followed him into the roll so that when he found his feet and turned, he came face to face with it's eight glowing 'eyes'. Risking injury, he thrust out with both sabers, striking it in two of those eight glaring lights, seeking to find the location of the motion sensor. The impact sent the monstrous creation into spasms and it flinched away – though only momentarily. Galen stabbed forwards again before the walker could intervene, putting out another 'eye'.

And then he made a hasty retreat, throwing back a burst of Sith Lightning to slow its pursuit—except that when he turned to see how close behind the walker was, it was to see it staggering carelessly about on the floor. Making most of the disorientation he let both sabers fly, bringing them in one after the other to strike at the exact same spot. The beast gave an angry whirring sound and took another step before Galen sent the blades spinning back on the offensive, mirroring one another as they arched around to strike again.

In the end it took four strikes to take off one of its limbs.

Unfortunately, it still had seven more – enough to keep it on its feet and moving towards him again – albeit slightly unsteadied. He lifted both sabers as if to ward it off, except the swift motion seemed to incite it. The walker rushed him, knocking him off-balance and then he was falling between a narrow gap in the debris with the walker looming; scrabbling away at the pieces in a desperate attempt to reach him.

Galen already had a plan.

He stretched out with the Force, touching across the ruined room to where the broken limb lay motionless. And, with deadly accuracy, he snapped it forwards; plunging it straight into the back of the walker – whose reach was so close now that Galen was certain his time was limited to seconds rather than minutes. The walker screeched as it reared up, twisting its legs as if it might be able to pry the intruding piece of metal out of its body. And in that moment Galen swung forwards with a saber in hand. He felt the resistance of its armor and then the tip of the blade worked between the edges of the plates and stuck there; hissing greedily. The walker thrashed to free itself which proved a costly mistake. Its motion jerked the weapon, tilting the blade and somewhere, inside its body, something of importance was severed.

It fell forwards heavily, draping its body across the narrow opening that Galen had fallen into; still jittering and whirring as if fighting to carry on.

The saber's blade retracted and dropped into Galen's open hand and then, after a long moment of quiet he dared to move, pulling himself carefully up through the gap between the walker's prone limbs. Only then, standing at its side did he lift the saber to ensure that the walker was truly dead.

It took two more hacking swipes before it powered down completely.

"It's perfectly safe." Galen tried to reason, painfully aware of the time—or more specifically, the lack of it. Was he maybe feeling slightly out of breath? Had the generator already run out of power? But still the people were frightened and he turned, frustrated, to the squad leader who was supporting a colleague in standing. "We need to get them out of here. Now."

The man nodded gravely. "Those who can move on their own two feet; help those who can't. The Jedi has dealt with that walker so there's no reason we can't all get out of here safely."

Amongst the gabble someone broke into staggered sobs and Galen had to forcibly stop himself from grinding his teeth in frustration. "Let's go."

"Everyone stay together and we'll be fine. I'll lead the way." And the squad leader raised his arm, waving a glowrod briefly in encouragement. To Galen, he said: "Are you alright to hang back and follow last? I know the way down to the shuttle from here."

"Fine. Just be careful. That walker opened up a few holes in the floor and if we lose light." He indicated the glowrod. "That will be all that keeps you from falling to your death."

The man nodded and then moved to rally his crew and the survivors, leaving Galen to wait by the door impatiently. The frightened complaints and continued sobs did nothing to make the time go any quicker but he had to admire the man for his patience in encouraging them all to follow.

And, when they filtered tentatively out he was left to trail behind with those who had opted to carry the wounded. The pace was excruciatingly slow though he dared not check with Juno on the time remaining. If the lights went out before they were at the shuttle he could full well imagine the panic that would ensue.

He wished, with a pang of sadness, that Kota had been there with him. The old man had been a stubborn fool at the best of times but he knew how to make people listen to him. How to get people to follow him. Kota had gotten through to him after all and that had been no easy feat.

The crackle of his com-link took him by surprise and he ignored the questioning looks being thrown back at him as he answered, keeping his voice low. "Everything okay?"

"Everything is fine. Listen, from your signal it looks like you're still some way out from where the shuttle is positioned. Time is short."

"I know. It's taking longer than I expected."

"The shuttle isn't big enough for everyone. Some of those survivors will need to be brought to the Rogue Shadow. I'm heading there now."

"I'll meet you there."

"Stay safe."

He looked up just in time to narrowly avoid colliding with the person in front who had a young, wounded Togruta slung across his back. "What's the hold up?"

"An obstruction, I think." Someone else piped up.

"Not another droid?" Came another panicked voice.

"No." Galen insisted firmly, determined to stamp that idea out before it had time to take root. "I would know about it if there was." A lie, perhaps, but there was no time for another outbreak of alarm. "Wait here."

It turned out that the hold up was simply because they had reached the maintenance shaft, which wouldn't have been a problem if there hadn't been wounded amongst their numbers.

"I don't think people will be able to climb down whilst carrying someone." The leader replied worriedly.

"I might be able to help with that." Galen replied. "We'll send the able-bodied ones down first and I'll support those carrying the wounded. You go down first to make sure none of them lose their nerve and bolt for the shuttle."

The leader agreed without a fuss and swung down into the maintenance shaft. After what felt like an incredible length of time he called back and Galen sent the others down one after the other until he was left only with those carrying the infirm.

"Okay, we'll need to do this one at a time."

"But, how—"

"—Let me finish. I'm going to support you in carrying as you go down. Don't ask questions. Just trust me."

Thankfully someone volunteered to go first and Galen followed him through into the maintenance shaft, holding himself steady as he used the Force to support the injured civilian he carried. It took a surprising amount of concentration to ensure that he didn't accidentally heft the semi-conscious man from place, lifting him in a way that he didn't put any weight on the one supporting him.

The man looked up, surprised at the sudden ease, but Galen urged him to hurry up, releasing the energy the moment they were back on secure ground.

It continued much in the same fashion until the very last man – the one carrying the wounded Togruta – backed up warily when it was his turn to go. From his uniform he had been a doctor at the facility before it had been attacked.

"I can't." He stuttered. "Heights."

Trying not to lose his temper, Galen tried to reason with him. "You saw the others all got down safely. I didn't come this far to let one of you fall when we're close to getting out."

"I can't!"

"We haven't got time for you to lose your nerve."

"But I—"

"Just hand her over."

"What?"

"The Togruta. I'll carry her. You can go down by yourself."

"Well, I…if you're sure?" He asked, although he was already moving to set the wounded girl on her feet. Unfortunately, her feet seemed incapable of holding her up and Galen caught her by the elbow as she sagged.

"Go. We've got to keep going or the others will leave us behind."

It took a seemingly long moment for the doctor to gather his courage at the top of the ladder but, eventually, he descended and, with Galen hovering by the entrance ready to support him if he lost his nerve, he reached safe ground quicker than expected.

Only then did he turn back to the shaky-looking Togruta, offering her a grim smile. "Ready?"

She looked less frightened than the man carrying her had but her arms coiled tightly around his neck as he descended, moving carefully so as not to encourage her to hold on any tighter. If he hadn't been struggling to catch his breath before, he certainly was now. Even still, she weighed almost nothing as he moved down the ladder and pulled himself through the door onto the next level where everyone was waiting.

"That's everyone." He gasped, pulling lightly on the girl's arm to try and loosen her stranglehold. The act only seemed to have the opposite affect, the Togruta clearly believing he was trying to set her down.

And then the lights went out.

After the initial burst of panic, Galen decided that the loss of light was probably a blessing in disguise; the depth of that darkness able to hide the bodies of the dead left littered in the corridor and rooms. He took point, using the force to lead them safely – single file – down towards the inpatients docking bay. With the station powerless and silent, it was easy to hear the unmistakeable drone of the Rogue Shadow's engines as Juno engaged the repulsor lift drive.

It was a welcome sound.

The Togruta he carried seemed to be slipping in and out of consciousness; something that concerned him. It would be some time yet before she or any of the others would receive adequate medical attention.

Then they were in the docking bay where the gleam from the Rogue Shadow cast a long strip of light to guide them. The other shuttle was powering up, too and as they drew closer Juno appeared in the entrance above the ramp and waved them over with a flashlight.

"We'll take the worst of the injured with us. We'll be able to get back faster."

"Our pilot?" The team's leader asked.

"Is he the unconscious Cerean?" Juno asked.

"No. We found him when we arrived and took him onboard. He leant us the droids."

"It's likely the pilot is dead." Galen interrupted. "Have you got anyone else who can fly?"

"We have."

"Then get your men aboard."

"I'll send you the co-ordinates." Juno replied, hastening back across the deck to her own ship. Galen – indicating that the wounded be carried onto the ship – followed after.

"Are we going back to the Armistice?"

"Yes. It has a well-equipped med bay and it has left Corellia in order for us to return. Safer to give out co-ordinates to a ship that can be moved than to a stationary hospital."

He nodded in silent agreement and moved to set the Togruta down on a bunk.

"What's wrong with her?"

"I don't know." Galen's dark eyes flicked across to hers. "Why would he do all of this and then leave without waiting for us to arrive?"

She squeezed his hand. "I don't know."

Something wasn't right. He didn't know what it was but he couldn't help but feel he had overlooked some detail that would have this add up.

"What about you? Do you need patching up?"

He looked down at the bloody tear in his sleeve and gave a shrug. "It can wait."

"Yes, but not too long." She gave him a light hug before moving back towards the cockpit. He followed after her without a word.

To be continued...

29th July