-Sadie-
I hated leaving Darin on his own, but I had to turn back for my helmet. I don't know how Darin managed to get through all that smoke. I was completely unable to breathe in it.
I sprinted down to my room, which luckily wasn't all that far from where I left him. I quickly darted in, snagged my helmet, threw on my armor, and grabbed my lightsaber. I glanced at the other weapons, but chose not to get them. They wouldn't be needed. I left my room and ran back to help Darin when I heard blaster fire coming from the floor below me.
I sprinted down there and found some fully armored troopers shooting at other troopers. Some of the men were lying dead on the ground.
"Hey!" I yelled. "What do you think you're doing?!"
"They turned on us!" Mouse shouted from behind a crate. "They're killing people!"
Kriff. Now I wish I had actually gotten my weapons.
The armored troopers started blasting at me and I deflected the bolts back at them. I moved quickly opposite Mouse and whoever was left over there so these guys had to divide their attention. Mouse started firing at them and I quickly dashed towards them. I moved quickly, slicing the blasters in half before Force throwing the troopers across the room.
I know I should be killing them. But a part of me was struggling with that. I knew these men. They were my friends. That had to mean something.
With the troopers incapacitated for a bit, I rushed to Mouse. He looked scared, but didn't seem to have any injuries. Brick was there, but he'd been shot in the arm. Stanley had been hit in the leg. Rollie was doing chest compressions on Evan who was completely unresponsive. Two Burhaj I didn't know were there.
Darin's voice rang in my mind. Ster hurt explode.
If he was ignoring basic grammar, this was serious. Got it. I've got a guy down here. How do I Force heal? I asked. I waited for a while, but got no reply.
Fine. I'll figure it out.
I quickly rushed over to Evan and placed my hand on his chest. Unsure of exactly what I was doing, I sort of just… pushed the Force into him, hoping that my Force knew I wanted to help and would help me out here. Evan jerked up gasping. Dark spots entered my vision, my ears started ringing, and I dropped to my knees. I suddenly felt terribly exhausted. I felt like I had just given all of my energy to him. I'm pretty sure I just did it horribly wrong.
The ringing in my ears subsided, and I could hear someone gasping in pain. I looked up, only to find that Stan, Rollie, and the Burhaj were looking at me with obvious fear on their faces.
"What's… what's wrong?"
"You kriffing burned me is what you did!?" Evan yelled. I looked and found that his shirt had a hand shaped hole burnt into it, and his chest looked badly burned where my hand was.
"She saved your life is what she did!" Brick yelled at him. "Not just once, but twice in the last two minutes." He looked to me and nodded. "What's the play, Commander?"
Darin's voice returned, saying Help Caty.
Where is she? I asked.
All I got was silence. It was annoying.
Suddenly, I could no longer feel his presence. Fear gripped at my heart. Ever since I'd gotten in touch with the Force, I've always been able to feel his presence there, constant. But now…
"Commander Wren?" Mouse said, concerned. I realized they were still looking to me to answer. I pushed my fear aside and decided to ad lib it. "Sorry. Darin was giving me some… status reports through the Force. Ste-uhh General Bureem was at the explosion, is hurt, and needs help. Then we need to go help Admiral Cress. Stanley, how's your leg?"
"Bad, but I can manage."
Not good enough. I pushed a button on my helmet, and scanned the area around me for medkits. The closest one was in a bathroom. I reached my hand out and concentrated, and the medkit flew into my hand. I quickly opened it and rifled through it.
Bingo. I pulled out the two stim canisters and tossed one to Stanley. I looked at Brick, who shook his head. I tossed the other canister to Evan.
"I need you guys in the best shape I can get. Who knows what we're gonna face."
I turned to the two Burhaj. "You two. What are your names?"
The taller, thicker one said "Jekhs" and the other one said "Lilpon".
"Jekhs and Lilpon. Good. You guys hurt?"
They shook their heads vigorously.
"Good. Everyone grab something to fight with and a helmet with an air filter." The guys started moving about. I glanced at the two Burhaj who hadn't moved, and asked "You guys need an air filter for really heavy smoke?"
They nodded.
"Do you guys have helmets?"
Lilpon said "The Alliance never makes helmets for Burhaj."
Well that's just great. I grabbed helmets off of two of the troopers I'd knocked out and placed them on the heads of the Burhaj. "How's that?"
"I can't see," Jekhs said.
"That's a problem. I don't have any other options, so how about you guys stay out of the heavy smoke and stand guard?"
They nodded. Not very talkative types, I guess. I'm gonna have to remember to ask Darin about making Burhaj helmets.
Yes. I will talk to Darin. He isn't dead. He can't be. I just wish his Force signature would return. I felt alone in the Force.
When everyone was ready, we moved quickly through the halls back to where the thick black smoke was. The Burhaj stood guard while the guys and I quickly darted into the rubble.
I gasped when I finally saw Ster. His jaw was kriffed, his skin looked to be completely charred in some places, and his arms looked to be broken in at LEAST two places.
I rushed to him. His eyes flitted open and he turned slightly to me.
"I think I'm gonna be sick," Stanley muttered.
"General Bureem, can you hear me?" I asked loudly.
His head moved ever so slightly, as if to nod. I glanced up when I heard a creaking sound from above.
"Okay, good. We're gonna get you out of here. I'm sorry, this will probably hurt, but we need to get you to safety. Evan, Mouse, Stanley, help me out here."
"I can help too," Brick said. "I've still got one good arm."
'Which will cover us in case we face resistance. Evan, Mouse, get his legs. I'm gonna get the shoulders. Stanley, get his midsection. Ready?" We lifted him up. He made some sort of sound, probably pain, but we had to move. Little specks were falling from the ceiling. The creaking got even louder and I yelled "MOVE!"
We picked up the pace. We were almost at the end when I realized the ceiling was going to collapse. I shifted Ster's weight to one arm. As soon as I did, the ceiling gave way. I instantly shot my arm out, calling the Force on instinct, and held the ceiling up.
Brick rushed in to help me with Ster's weight as we rushed to get him out. The Burhaj rushed over when we got close and took some of the weight. Grateful, I let them take Ster so I could focus on holding up the ceiling. My arms were shaking and I wanted to fall, but I stood strong. As soon as we were out from under it, I let go and the rubble crashed into the ground. I slid against the wall, exhausted. I wanted to sleep. I wanted to do nothing.
But I couldn't stop yet. I had to help Caty. And I had to find Darin. I had to make sure he was alright. I stood back up and had them take Ster to the nearest bathroom. When they got him inside, I had the two Burhaj stay with him, lock the door, and protect him.
We had to get him to the medbay as soon as possible.
But I had to help Caty. Problem was I had no idea where she was. Time to guess.
"We need to help Admiral Cress. Let's get to the bridge."
I was exhausted. As we rushed to the bridge, we ran into numerous other skirmishes against the traitors. Each time, I did my best to incapacitate them without killing them. I used stun bolts, I pinned them under crates, I locked them in rooms, I even broke one guy's arm between two pipes so he was unable to get his arm out. And with each rescue, we found more and more battered survivors. What started as me and four troopers had slowly grown to myself, two Seyley, five Burhaj, and twenty two troopers by the time we reached the bridge.
The door to the bridge was surrounded by about twenty-five traitors, all trying to get through a rather interesting defensive design. The doors were partially opened, only enough for about three men across, and a large metal table was turned over a meter or so away from the door. A couple of blasters were being fired from behind the table. Water covered the floor, and I could see a few cables had been cut so they would be sparking in the water.
The traitors noticed us approaching and started firing at us. I led the charge, lightsaber ignited and batting away their blaster bolts, a few of the troopers in front carrying riot shields while the rest shot at the enemy from behind the front row.
I reached the first guy and sliced his gun in half before giving him a swift kick in the groin.
I dashed to the right, grabbed the guy's blaster, and hit him in the face with the back of my saber before Force throwing him into two other traitors. Without missing a beat, I quickly switched the blaster I took to stun, and fired off several shots, stunning a few. A few stun bolts pinged off of my armor, but I was unfazed. Beskar was amazing.
As the last few guys were incapacitated by the rest of the guys, I searched frantically through the Force for any sign of Darin. Any trace, any hint, anything to let me know if he was alright.
But I found nothing. The knot in my stomach tightened.
"Commander Wren, we've got a slight problem," Evan said, jolting my attention back to what was going on. "Admiral Cress doesn't seem to be at the bridge."
"WE'VE GOT MANY MORE IMPORTANT PROBLEMS!" one of the bridge crew yelled.
"What?" I stormed onto the bridge and looked around, Evan following closely behind. The bridge crew were scrambling in a panic as they tried to fix whatever was happening. Lights were flashing everywhere and I saw many screens that said WARNING or CRITICAL. I saw Than Valum leaning against a flashing control panel, badly injured, and walked up to him. "Admiral Cress isn't here?!"
He grunted and shook his head. "Just some of the bridge crew, myself, and Stroh here." He nodded at the Burhaj next to him. "Her and I were playing cards with some of the other bridge crew earlier. She got a call that she had to take. She left. We got ambushed. Stroh saved my ass."
Suddenly the stars outside stretched into bright lines as we shot into hyperspace.
"It wasn't me!" one of the guys exclaimed.
I rushed to the control panel and started inputting the emergency override code Caty had told me. It was the one thing I knew involving the stuff going on here.
Nothing. We were still in hyperspace. Kriff. The control panel must be broken. I'm gonna need to call a service droid to fix it. Or Darin.
Darin! He was messing in the hyperdrive core today! He had to be behind this.
"Alright. This is alright. Hyperspace is good," I said loudly. "This is probably either Admiral Cress or Master Kravhenn working on it behind the scenes. We have no reason to panic."
"We could be blindly short-jumping into a star, and the whole ship is falling apart," Peter said matter-of-factly.
"Well if we jump into a star, we all die painlessly," I retorted.
This was not the right thing to say. Nobody laughed.
Sadie, a familiar voice said faintly.
That beautiful presence had returned, and the crushing fear disappeared.
Holy kriff, Darin, thank the Force you're okay! I was so worried!
I waited. Silence. Finally he said Did you get Ster and Caty?
There was something off about him.
I got Ster, but haven't found Caty. Are you okay?
There was nothing. Stillness. I was vaguely aware of people talking around me, calling my name, but that didn't matter to me at the moment.
I'm gonna get Caty and meet you by the med bay.
I could feel his presence slipping away, and I desperately grabbed onto it, to hold on.
Suddenly I could feel his thoughts flooding into my mind, his pain filling my body, his feelings battering my soul. I instantly let go.
I had grabbed onto his Force presence with my own for only a moment, and yet that single moment when I felt the floodgates open and the waves rush in, it was the most horrible thing I'd experienced. There didn't seem to be an end.
I forced myself to focus on where I was, the voices around me, and was surprised to find myself on the ground.
Peter was shaking me. "Commander Wren! Commander Wren can you hear me?!"
"Yea yea," I muttered and sat up. Some of my ragtag group of fighters were staring at me with concern.
"You collapsed," Than said through pained grunts.
"Yea." I groaned. "I'm just… exhausted." Sort of true. I was in fact exhausted, but I didn't want to talk about what I felt.
"Right… I sent some men to round up the traitors and cram them into the cells," Brick said.
"We… we need to go to the med-bay," I managed before getting myself up. "Valum needs medical attention. And we need to get Ster to a bacta tank ASAP."
"Ster… Ster is hurt?" Than asked.
Brick and I exchanged looks before I said "He needs a bacta tank." I glanced around the room for something to use to transport Than and Ster to the med bay.
My eyes fell on the large scrubber droid. I had an idea. I just hope the droid doesn't hate me for it.
The droid's name was F3-HZ9, and it did NOT like having to carry the heavy Seyley to the med bay. I only got it to when I promised that I'd have a droid expert give it a full cleaning, oil change, and repair the damaged joint in one of its legs that caused it to lilt slightly to the left. Sorry Darin.
When we stopped and got Ster, Than looked like he was gonna cry.
I was ruminating on Darin and what happened with the Force when blaster fire pulled me to my surroundings. The med bay was under attack.
I groaned and mustered up some more energy. I don't know how much more of this I can do today. It's basically been a non-stop battle for me.
I told Brick and the other men I brought to stay with the Seyley as I charged forwards.
The traitors saw me and turned towards me, but I was already there. I kicked one, ducked a reckless haymaker, Force threw one into a wall, and stabbed a guy in the foot with my saber. The guy I kicked drove his shoulder into my abdomen and kept going, trying to run me over. I stumbled back, almost falling over, but found the strength to hold my ground. For a moment we were locked in a stalemate, which I quickly ended with a sharp elbow to his kidney. A few more guys came out of the med bay with their guns drawn on me.
I ignited my saber, prepared to take them down, when they seemed to wisen up, drop their weapons, and raise their hands in the air.
"It's clear," I called and opened one of the local closets. I grabbed some straitjackets and started putting them on the surrendered men.
They fought me a bit, but withered under my gaze.
It was a strange feeling. I didn't like it very much.
"You all good Commander?" Brick asked as they wheeled the Seyley around.
"Aces."
I opened the med bay doors and immediately had to duck as a blaster bolt whizzed by me. Thank god I had the Force to warn me of these things.
The blaster was held shakily by a tear stricken Mirial girl. The refugee I could never remember. Beside her sat Jet, one of the pilots.
When she saw who I was, she dropped the blaster and started crying. I waved the guys to bring in the Seyley and went to the refugee. As I got closer to her, I noticed a familiar figure laying on the ground by her.
It was Q. Multiple blaster wounds had badly seared his flesh.
A lump formed in my throat. I wanted to cry so badly. He couldn't be dead. It was Q. He was invincible.
I heard the med bay doors open once again, and I barely managed to keep from crying.
Darin limped through the door, Caty in his arms. She was wrapped in a blood stained blanket.
For a horrible moment I thought Caty was dead, until I saw her head move. Caty and I made eye contact for a short moment, but her eyes showed me nothing. Her stare was completely blank.
Darin gently placed Caty on one of the beds. He looked horrible. He was drenched, half of his face was swollen and purple, and it looked like he was barely putting any weight on one of his legs. He seemd to be grimacing with every movement. He slowly limped my way, his eyes meeting mine, and I saw a similar emptiness in them.
"What happened?" I asked.
He shook his head. Not now.
He reached me and knelt down, placing his hand on Q's back.
"He needs bacta."
I stared at Darin, puzzled. He grimaced. He's still alive. Barely, but there's hope, he said.
"Can you keep him stable?"
He nodded. The girl, Brick, Jet, and I hoisted Q up and carried him to the tank, Darin following. We quickly prepared him and put him inside.
After that, Darin gingerly made his way to Ster, and we got him prepped for bacta and placed him in the same tank as Q. I don't think that's what you're supposed to do, but Darin said it should be fine and I trust him.
I watched Darin carefully collect M5's pieces and put them in a bedpan. It was hard to believe that just earlier today, he and I were eating dinner in the hyperdrive core. It felt like so long ago.
I glanced over and saw the girl giving Than a hug. I looked back to Darin. Part of me wished that he would do that. Show some sort of concern. Affection. Something. But he hadn't. He was just moving from one task to another with a hollow look in his eyes, like a droid.
The doors opened and more traitors rushed in, blasters firing. They didn't get very far though. Before anybody could do anything, Darin had raised a hand, and all twelve men were lifted off the ground. I waited for him to throw them, but he didn't.
He was no longer the emotionless droid he'd been before. I felt the flood of anger flowing from him, the raw power of it radiating through the Force, and I watched with paralyzing fear as all twelve men started clutching at their throats, clawing at them in an effort to get some air.
I realized that Darin was going to coldly suffocate them all, and that realization pushed me to action.
"Put them down," I commanded, my voice louder and clearer than I thought possible.
Darin didn't answer, but I thought I could feel the Force waver ever so slightly in him so I said "This is not who we are."
"It's not who you are."
"You're better than this."
"I'm not."
That one line, a line he said with such certainty, such finality, it sent chills down my spine.
"You may not believe it, but I do."
No response from him, but the Force was definitely wavering.
Softly, I said "Please Darin. Put them down."
A few agonizing moments ticked by before he dropped his hand. The men dropped to the ground, loud gasping sounds coming from them. A couple of our guys rushed over and started putting straitjackets on these guys as well. Apparently those were the best restraints we had available at the moment.
I watched Darin walk over to the medicine cabinet. He quickly found a couple bottles and poured some pills in a cup before walking over to Caty and giving them to her. Everyone was giving him a very wide berth, and I didn't blame them.
The doors to the med bay opened again, only this time it was Chuck, one of the maintenance crew, dragging a transport pallet behind him.
"Been rounding up the wounded. Evan said y'all had the med bay secured. Where do you want these guys?"
All eyes turned to me, which I was not expecting. I glanced around the room and pointed to a corner. He nodded and wheeled the pallet over, where Jet and Lilpon unloaded the wounded. "I'll be back with more," Chuck yelled before leaving.
I carefully went to Caty's bed and patted her hand. She looked at me, her expression still utterly emotionless, then kept on staring at the wall she was staring at before. It was unnerving.
Darin started trying to carry M5's parts, and I quickly jumped in and grabbed the legs and an arm.
Jet came up to us and said "We don't have enough equipment for everyone. How do you want to play this?"
I turned to Darin, expecting him to have an answer, but he said nothing. A few seconds passed, and it didn't even look like he had heard Jet. He just kept walking.
I realized that Jet had been looking at me. "Oh. Uhm, kriff. Has anyone here worked in a med bay or cared for patients in some way?"
A few seconds passed with no answers before the refugee girl timidly raised her hand.
"What did you do?"
"I was training to be a healer at my village, but I never completed my training."
"She saved my life," Than said loudly. "She is capable."
"Great. You're running the med bay until further notice. Keep these people alive. Jet, you stay here, you're my point of contact, and you're gonna help make sure everything here is organized and running smoothly. Sounds good?"
"Absolutely."
I turned back to Darin, but he was gone.
I sprinted through the halls until I finally caught up with him. This was starting to piss me off.
"In a hurry, huh?" I said, swallowing my anger.
"I need to fix M5. I need to fix the ship. I… I need to work right now." He was looking around the halls as he limped on.
"Well, I was hoping we could talk."
"Uh huh."
"Well, first off, what do we do with the traitors?"
"Kill them."
"We are not going to kill them."
"They can't stay here."
"We can keep them in the cells, and-"
"And then we would be feeding them, clothing them, singing them bedtime stories, and for what? They stabbed us in the back, and we repay it with kindness? No. We can't afford to be feeding them. We don't have the resources."
"Well we aren't going to kill them. They were our friends. That means something."
"We were their friends, and look what they chose to do."
"We're better than that." I watched him pause slightly, then keep going. "Thank you for sparing them."
He grunted, but said nothing. His wristcomm was blinking rapidly, but he seemed to be ignoring the many notifications he was receiving.
We arrived at the door to Darin's room, and found it had been pried open. I glanced at him, and saw the color drain from his face.
"Stay back," he muttered before putting M5's parts down on the ground and carefully moving through the door. Seconds felt like hours as I heard him tentatively moving about.
I finally allowed myself to breathe when I heard "all clear". I picked up the rest of M5 and walked through. His room, which was usually a bit messy, was absolutely destroyed. Clothes were thrown everywhere, drawers were broken, a safe was destroyed, his bed was flipped over, it looked like someone had been violently searching for something. I glanced at Darin, who was frantically searching through the mess for something. I pushed the thin mattress aside and found his toolbox, which appeared untouched.
"Found the toolbox," I said. Nothing. He was still searching. "Can I help?" I asked. No response. He searched for a bit longer before giving up. He turned to me, defeat in his eyes.
"What'd you lose?"
"The holocrons were stolen," he said flatly. "And the briefcase that was in that safe is gone."
"What was in the briefcase?"
"A project I was working on with Tag. He brought it to me months ago, and I've been working on it with him."
"Uh huh. What was this project?"
"A small, compact explosive meant to completely dismantle a small command station." He grabbed the toolbox and M5's battered head and got to work, seemingly oblivious to me still being there.
"It's not your fault."
"Sort of is though."
"You didn't know he was going to turn on us."
"I should've known."
"How could you have known?"
"He was supposed to be executed on Kamino. Him and his squad. They were labeled defective. I decided to take them. I thought 'oh, how defective could they be? I'm sure it's fine. Probably just a high strung Jedi complaining.' Maybe that Jedi saw this sort of thing happening and turned them in. I don't know. I didn't ask. I was an idiot, and now all of this is my fault because I brought that animal on board, and I enabled all of this, and now Caty…" He wiped at his eyes and composed himself, putting on the emotionless mask he sometimes wore. I hated that mask.
"Darin…"
"This is on me."
He inserted a chip and reconnected some wires and M5's lights came on.
"What?! What happened?! Where did they go?!" M5 cried.
"You got destroyed. I'm putting you back together," Darin said.
"What about those people? The ones in the med bay? Did they kill the patients?"
"No, the patients survived. None died on your watch."
The head let out a whirr of relief.
"I'm going to shut you off now. I just needed to make sure your logic processors and memory banks were still intact and functional. Once I turn you back on, you will have your body back. It'll be badly dinged up, but you'll be mobile. I'll replace your parts when I find replacements. Sound good?"
"I don't have much choice, do I?"
"No." Darin clicked a button, and the lights faded out.
"Darin, you gave Tag a second chance. That's not your fault. You did the right thing."
"I disagree."
"Then let's agree to disagree."
He nodded, and I sat there with him for a moment as he reconnected one of M5's battered legs.
He cleared his throat and said "I'm really glad you're safe."
"Yea, me too."
He glanced at me and gave me a small smile, then went back to reattaching M5's limbs.
Before I could stop myself, I quickly said "I couldn't feel you through the Force for a while, and I was terrified that you were dead." I stared at him blankly. I was very uncomfortable. I didn't like this. I didn't do this. I didn't talk about this with anyone. Vulnerability. Fear. Insecurity. My mind immediately flooded with panic and anxiety, but I just pushed it aside and tried to give a smile.
He gave me a small smile and said "I'm not going anywhere. Promise."
"You better not."
He flipped open a panel on the torso and pushed some buttons. A couple lights flashed, and he frowned. "Good enough."
He flipped a switch and M5 came on with a slight shudder. He let out a whirr and said "Well, this body is in a sorry state."
"I did the best I could with what I have available."
A few beeping noises came from M5 and he said "Well, judging from the system logs you've done a stellar job putting this body back together. I'm surprised you managed to salvage the right leg at all."
Darin shrugged, looked at his comm, and groaned.
"Hey, can you take M5 to the med bay and then handle whatever needs handling? I need to make sure this ship doesn't fall apart."
"Yea of course. See ya." Feeling impulsive, I gave him an unexpected kiss on the cheek and left with M5, the last sound I heard from him being a slightly confused "uhh".
Two days passed before I finally got to see Darin again.
I had been left with handling any issues that were occurring now. I was the one who ultimately made the decision to put the traitors on a ship to Popelios and shoot them out without us leaving hyperspace. I was the one who handled bunk reassignment. I was the one who was handling the ration schedule. I was the one handling the evacuation of entire ship sections when Darin sent the odd message that he was selectively disabling life support systems. I was the one who was working with Than to plan our next steps. I was doing a whole lot of things I would have loved to be working with him on, but he wasn't answering.
Not to mention Bree had been following me around recently, trying to help however she can. I appreciated it, but it was weird how quickly she latched onto me. Now I had no choice but to remember her name.
I was very frustrated with all of this and when I heard Darin was making a public appearance, I had planned to go chew him out for it.
All of that changed when I saw him. He looked like death. His clothes and skin were stained with oil and muck and all manner of disgusting stuff. His hair was a mess. His hands were blistered and grimy. His eyes were extremely bloodshot, and he looked like he hadn't slept since I last saw him. He seemed to be having a hard time just lifting his feet to walk, and was leaning against the wall as he went.
"What happened to you?!"
"Sorry. Ship is in really bad shape." He yawned. "How have you been?"
"Bloody marvelous. I've been handling things here. Have you eaten anything?"
He shook his head. "We need to find a planet and dock there for a time. Get everyone off. Maybe… maybe I can salvage something." He yawned again. "We won't last in hyperspace. I need to shut things down."
"Than and I have considered Garfanza."
"Great. Great." He rubbed his eyes, and I could hear his stomach growl. "I just… just need a little nap right now."
"You need a lot more than that. Come on."
He followed me as we made our way towards the last few dorms that had life support. As we went, I quickly sent Bree a message asking if she could bring a ration bag and some bottled water to my room.
"You'll be staying in my room. I got your stuff moved there already. There's a personal shower you can use as well."
"Bit early to be moving in, don't you think?"
"Would you rather I squeeze your cot into a tiny room with four other guys?"
"No, no, I'd rather stay with you."
"Mhm. Thought so."