Corellian Pledge-Ch.9- Pt.2

Ch.9: Fight and Flight-Pt.2</b>

Luke hadn’t wasted any time, he was looking around the room for another exit.  It was Lana’s anguished question that made him abandon his search for escape and return to the two rebel’s.    

“Oh God, Terell you were safe!!  Why did you do that?! “

The Alderaanian was laying on the floor, clutching his stomach, breathing hard.  Blood seeped through his tightly closed fingers where he was clutching his injury.

“It’s not your time,” was all he said, his strained voice revealing the pain he was experiencing.  His focus fell on Luke, when the Jedi set the blaster rifle aside as he bent down beside him.

“Here, hold this.”  Luke handed Lana his lightsaber to get a better look at the rebel’s wound by it’s light.  The bright green blade cast an eerie glow about the injured man’s face.  Terell lifted his hands enough for Luke to see the palm size exit hole in his stomach.  Luke instantly knew a horrible truth and grimly met the wounded man’s eyes.  By Terell’s grave expression he fully understood what the outcome of this new wound would be.  

“We need something to wrap around his wounds,” said Lana, scanning the room for something--anything--to do just that.

She didn’t know about the severity of Terell’s injury and neither man was going to tell her.  Luke began to remove his belt and then his black obi.  He assisted Terell into a sitting position and started wrapping it securely around his middle.

Terell looked from Luke to Lana, holding the Jedi’s lightsaber in her shaking hands and comprehension flashed in his eyes.  “I understand the dream now Lana,” he whispered to her.  Luke curiously followed his gaze to Lana and saw fearful moisture filling her eyes as Terell told her, “We were never meant to be together in the end.”

“Don’t talk that way!” Lana exclaimed shaking her head.  Guilt settled in as she instantly thought of her unintentional kiss with the Jedi only minutes earlier.   “It was nothing more than a stupid dream.  You’re going to be alright,” she insisted, her voice growing thick.  

Luke tucked the end of the obi down and eased Terell back.  He then sharply strapped the wounded man’s own belt tightly around his makeshift bandage.

Terell winced sharply, his head spun in a whirl of pain.  How easy it would be to let go of it all and let the darkness have him.  But then his love’s stern, yet fearful voice rang loudly in his ears and pulled him back from the brick.

“Stay with us Terell! ”  Lana ordered firmly.

He looked at her with hazy eyes, then took her hand and weakly placed it in Luke’s.  “Don’t be afraid Lana,” he said weakly, “go with him, he can protect you.”

Lana shook her head, but Terell firmly held their hands together.

“You know that’s what it meant,” he insisted.  “Now go.”

“No!”  Lana pulled her hand out of the Jedi’s and gave him back his weapon.  “I’m not leaving you behind.  Now get up! ”

Terell turned to Luke and in a heavily strained voice told him that he’d have to drag her out.

Luke nodded and firmly declared.  “I won’t let anything happen to her.”  He then took a shocked Lana by the arm.

She yanked it away in strong protest, “Oh no! </u> He just saved your life and you’re going to leave him here? What kind of a Jedi are you?! </b></u>”

“Cut your losses and run, Lana,” Terell told her, “I’m not going any further than this room.”

“Oh yes you are! That worked for Keirdan, but it’s not going to work with you.  If you’re strong enough to argue with me then you’re strong enough to ,get up! </b></u>” she declared in a heated temper.  Lana moved to help him up, then winced painfully and fell back clutching at her left leg.  The stabbing twinge that shot through her ankle was excruciating.

“Let me see your leg,” Luke said at once.

“It’s nothing,” she insisted, through her teeth.

Luke ignored her brush off and took her foot.  Lana hissed sharply when he lightly moved her ankle.

Terell sat up  on his elbows concerned, grimacing from his own pain.  “Did she break it?” he asked in a labored breath.

“Feels like it might be dislocated,” Luke told them.

Lana stopped him from trying to remove her boot.  “Don’t! ”  she growled through clenched teeth, holding her leg.

“You can’t continue to walk on it like this.  I have to remove the boot to relocate it,” Luke explained as he tried to see how best to do this.  After a moment he nodded to himself, there was simply no other way.  “I’m going to cut the boot off,” he told her.

Lana’s watering eyes widened.  She sat motionless, watching, while he lightly touched the lightsaber to the top of her leather boot.  Luke carefully drew the saber’s tip along the length of Lana’s lower limb.  With a dull thud the boot fell away from her foot to the ground.

Terell winced when he heard the unmistakable sickly pop of Lana’s ankle slipping completely out of place.  Lana couldn’t stifle the cry of pain that escaped her.

Luke, expecting this might happen, remained calm and handed his saber to Terell.

The injured rebel watched by its green glow while Luke gently took Lana’s left foot in his hands.  Her ankle was grossly enlarged on one side where it was disjointed, resulting in her foot bending at an odd angle.  The sight of it made Lana sick.  She closed her eyes and reached inside her jacket to extract Creature’s small leather hood from an interior pocket and placed it between her teeth.  Sweat trailed down her face while she bit down on the hood to keep from crying out.  

Very slowly Luke pulled and rotated her injured foot, much to the stifled sounds of pain from Lana, until he decided just how best to relocate it.  “Okay Lana. . .  No don’t look at this, look  at me.”  Her pain filled eyes met his confident steady gaze and he told her, “Brace your good foot against my knee and push against it as hard as you can. That’s good, now keep it that way,” he said when she did as he instructed, “On three.”

Lana could only nod.  She took a deep breath and counted along with him in her head.

“One,” Luke started, his eyes locked on hers, “two--”  then very abruptly he pushed her back some with the Force while he pulled down hard on her foot and sharply twisted her ankle back into alignment.

Lana fell back with an agonizing cry of pain and slammed her fists onto the ground, her squeezed eyes streaming uncontrollably.  The feeling of being pulled in two different directions at once, while having her foot powerfully twisted down and back was not something she was fully expecting.  The shock of it held her flat on her back, fighting to keep her world from going dark, under a merciful blanket of unconsciousness.  

Terell took her hand and she clung tightly to it as though he was her lifeline from blissful oblivion.

She laid on the ground breathing in short hard gasps.  Concentrating all the while on the feel of her love’s hand in hers instead of the blinding agony.  She could endure any pain so long as he was safe.  Gradually her world stop spinning and she raised up on her elbows.

“You okay now?” Terell asked once she appeared to have recovered some composure.

Lana nodded and irritably returned Creature’s leather hood to her pocket while glaring at Luke.  With the Force, he had summoned some rags he saw laying on the floor just on the edge of his lightsaber’s glow.  He was ripping the rags into long strips and tying them end to end when she finally regained the use of her voice.  

“What the hell happened to three?! ” she growled.

“I lied,” Luke said very plainly while securely wrapping her ankle up.  “How’s it feeling now?” he questioned when he finished and assisted her into a sitting position.

She wiped her face dry and admitted somewhat bitterly, “Better.”

“You think you can stand on it?” asked Terell, his strained voice relieved and slightly weakened.

Luke helped Lana to stand and she gingerly tested her ankle’s strength.  As the Jedi aided her to walk a few steps away she told him quite seriously, “I’m not leaving without him.”

“No one’s staying behind,” he told her, then helped her back to Terell.

With a heartfelt, ‘thank you,’ the wounded man weakly handed the lightsaber back to Luke, after he put his belt back on.  

“You’re welcome.”  Luke bent down to assist the Alderaanian.  “Now, come on we’re all getting off this rock.”

Lana followed his lead and together they managed to hoist Terell onto his feet.    

Their determination was plain and Terell was feeling too weak to argue with either of them.  He spoke imploringly to Luke.  “Promise you’ll look after her when I’m gone.”

“I’ll will,” the Jedi vowed.

“You have to take her back to Corellia.”

Again Luke agreed, if only to relieve the wounded man’s obvious distress.

“You were meant to--take her back--to--Corellia,” Terell whispered somewhat sadly.

Lana bristled angrily, “Stop that Terell, you’re going to make it!”

His head lolled to one side with a groan, “How are we going to get out of here?”

Luke pointed with his saber towards a secondary exit.  “There’s another door in the corner over there.”  

Terell and Lana looked sharply at the door when they heard the distinct sound of a much bigger gun coming from the other side of it.  Weaponless and fearing for Terell’s safety, Lana’s eyes scanned the floor searching for the blaster rifle Luke had used earlier and saw it not far away from them.  She reached out with her hand, intending on making a quick grab for it, when without understanding how it got there, the blaster suddenly flew to her outstretched hand.  At that same instant Luke felt a chilling sensation wash over him as Freya called out mentally for her friend’s position.

Lana sent a mental image of their whereabouts to Freya before shooting out the controls next to the door, which caused brilliant sparks to fly out and fully light the room for a short time.

“Well we’re not getting out that way,” Luke said somewhat annoyed.

“Yeah and they’re not getting in now, are they?” snapped Lana.

“Where’s Freya?” Terell asked groggily.

To Luke’s surprise Lana answered, ‘She’s coming,’ as though she knew for sure where their absent team member was.  A strong flash of illness struck Luke as the disruption in the Force grew close.  He tried not to let it effect him and glanced at Lana when he felt it flare for a moment around her while she looked at the ceiling and called out to her friend.

“**We’re here.  I need your sight Freya.**”  Lana shut her eyes, “**Show me where I am from above.**”

The disruption spiked when Freya answered her call and informed her of a new arrival.   

Lana pointed to the far wall.  “There’s an enclosed garden on the other side of that wall with a door that will bring us out closer to your friends.  They’ve got a ride waiting for us,” she informed Luke.  “Can you cut an opening in the wall with your saber?”

“I think so,” said Luke, straining some to remain focused.

He and Lana helped Terell cross the room.  Lana supported Terell while Luke pushed his lightsaber into the thick clay wall.  It was slow going at first until Luke managed to sink the entire blade through the wall.  A dark melted line showed the Jedi weapon’s path marking an arched doorway that Luke then pushed out with the Force.

Light flooded into the storage unit; and all three of them, their eyes accustomed to the dimness, squinted out at the gray overcast garden.  Luke extinguished his saber and reattached it to his belt while he returned to Terell and Lana.

Thunder sounded as Terell draped his arm around Luke’s shoulder and the Jedi led them out into the garden.  Chaotic sounds were everywhere, it was as if there was a mini war zone just beyond the gardens protective walls.  They made their way steadily towards the door without interruption from the Mandalorian Hunters, who from the sounds of it, were concentrating their efforts on breaking into the doors of the small storage unit.

A small laser cannon was being shot off as they neared the garden door.

A loud explosion, which shook the ground, told the retreating rebel’s that the Hunters had finally broken through.  The side facing the alley partially collapsed on top of some of them as they rushed into the weakened clay structure.

This gave the rebels a little more time to escape.  They were approaching the garden door when Luke began stumbling again, slowing their progress.  

Freya suddenly appeared overhead.

“They’re over here Han!” she shouted over her shoulder while she hovered above them for a moment.  Freya then landed behind them to guard their backs when she saw the Hunters peering through Luke’s impromptu door.

Creature followed after her, carrying Lana’s back pack in his talons.  He dropped it down for Lana at the garden door, then flew high up into the drifting smoke and low hanging storm clouds where the Hunter’s could not see him.  His piercing predatory cry rent the air as he folded his wings and dove down on the first unmasked Mandalorian to enter the garden.  He sprayed venom in the man’s face, who screamed and then fell to the ground, scratching at his eyes as Creature flew swiftly out of sight, to set up for another attack.

Freya, in the meantime, stood with her back to Luke and her two friends, absorbing hit after hit of blaster fire from the Mandalorian’s, who had made it through.   

Once the three rebels made it to the garden door Lana shot it open.  Luke reeled and then fell to one knee at that moment.  Terell fell with him which dragged Lana down to her knees as well, making her lose her weapon.

It was illness such as Luke had never felt before.  His insides were churning and twisting into painful knots.  He had broken out in a cold sweat and wanted to collapse, to free himself of the abhorrent distortion in the Force, which was all encompassing.  Still he fought to remain conscious.

Freya had taken in as much energy as she could and redirected her accumulated energy flux back out at her enemy.

At that same moment Luke involuntarily retched.  He tried to stand as the vomitous wave passed but couldn’t.  Before his head could clear he was suddenly lifted to his feet by a familiar pair of hairy arms.

Chewbacca barked a question at him and then hurriedly handed the sick Jedi up to Han, when he didn’t answer.

“Were you shot?”  Han asked, worried looking him over for injury.

Luke shook his head, then asked about the Princess when he didn’t see her.

Han turned and set him down next to her.  She hugged him briefly and then leaned over in a sudden illness.  Solo warily eyed the two of them.

“What’s gotten into you two?!” he finally asked.

“I don’t know,” Leia panted, trying not to be ill.

She looked at Luke, who was eying her with a sudden astonishment.  Leia, he knew immediately, could feel the disruption in the Force and it was affecting her as badly as it was him.

Chewbacca’s bark gained Han’s attention.  He turned and helped him get Terell onto the skiff.  They set Terell next to Leia on her request.  Then the huge Wookiee went to man the small cannon again.  

“Your highness,” Terell rasped weakly as Princess Leia rested his head in her lap, “Tell my parents I love them.”

She tried not to show her own illness as she comforted the weak Alderaanian.  “You tell them that when you get back.”

“Where’s Lana?” Terell feebly questioned Luke.

“She’s coming,” he answered.

Terell closed his eyes and smiled faintly when he heard Lana shout at Freya.  

“We’re leaving, Freya! NOW!! </u>”

Lana handed off her pack to Han and then accepted his hand up.  She glanced back at her friend and Han swiftly stopped her from jumping back off the skiff when she saw that Freya was now caught.  Thin wire cables, just like the one Boba Fett had used on Luke, were wrapped tightly around Freya's upper arms, holding them pinned to her sides.

Seizing Han’s blaster from his holster, Lana aimed at Freya, but Solo pulled it up before she could fire it.

“What are you doing?! ” Lana shouted, “We can’t leave her behind!”

“We don’t shoot our own,” Han stated, completely taken off guard by her move.  He pulled the gun from her hand.  “We’ll get her back!”

Lana automatically looked to the one person she could trust.  “Terell, shoot her now! </u>”

He opened his eyes but had very little strength to do anything.

Much to the Corellian captain’s surprise and Lana’s, the blaster flew from Han’s strong grip, not to Terell, but to Luke’s out stretched hand.  He took aim and fired twice at Freya with deadly accuracy.

Freya jerked sharply, absorbing the blasts when they hit her in the back.

Terell saw Luke’s sickly pallor as the Jedi leaned against the floor of the skiff breathing hard.

“Don’t fight the disruption, let it freely pass over you or it will continue to make you sick.”

Terell’s feeble rasp gained Luke’s queasy attention.

“Why aren’t you sick?”  

“It doesn’t affect me because I’m used to it,” he explained.  “And I’m not as strong as you.”  

The Jedi did as he said.  His head cleared and he gained some ground on his sudden illness.  He then fired two more rounds at Freya after Terell told him she needed more engery.

Han wanted to shout, ‘Have you lost your mind Luke?! ’ but he was momentarily stunned that Freya was still standing.  He couldn’t believe his own eyes, which were still not up to their normal focus.

The second shots gave Freya just what she needed to free herself.  She grabbed the two separate lines from the Hunters and released her power flux down the wires holding her.  Several bright purple bolts of skewed energy spiraled down the conductive lines and ripped into the two men holding her captive.  They writhed in pain and screamed as though their every nerve were on fire.  The cables dropped out of their hands and they dropped dead next to them.  Freya was once again free, a satisfied smile on her lips.

Han released Lana, who went right to Terell, while he stared in disbelieve at Freya.  The Corellian Captain had seen many strang things in all his travels but he’d never witnessed anything like that before.  An image of the Dark Lord, repelling his blaster fire on Cloud City suddenly flashed in his mind and for the first time since his recuse Han felt his own fear.  It was a subtle cold grip that held him prisoner.  A blastershot bouncing off the skiff’s gaurdrail very close to him woke him from his momentary freeze up and he instantly went to the skiff controls to pilot them back to the hanger.

Lana kneltdown next to Terell and met Luke’s winded gaze with a heartfelt, ‘Thank you.’

He nodded unable to speak and sank down on his back, his stomach cramping with illness.   

Freya volted high up into the air and landed on the skiff as it passed and joined her friends.

“Where’s Creach?” Lana asked her.

Freya leaned over the skiff railing and whistled sharply for the Guardian.  Creature gave a piercing cry and then flew after them.

Terell moaned painfully while he drifted in and out of semiconsciousness.  Lana applied pressure to his wound and ignored the fact that his makeshift bandage was soaked through.  Harder  to ignore was the amount of blood that was steadily covering her hands as she spoke encouraging words to him.  They reached the Falcon’s hanger in mere minutes on the skiff.

“We made it Terell, just hang in there and we’ll get you patched up in no time,” Lana told him.  He sluggishly returned her reassuring kiss when the skiff stopped.

Chewbacca jumped off first and helped Han and Freya get the wounded man off next.  Leia, with blaster in hand, watched for any possible pursuers.  Her shots warned the others that they were indeed being closely followed by another hovering transport.  Creature followed after Luke, who helped Lana down and then draped her arm over his shoulder and moved into the hanger after the others.  Princess Leia brought up the rear of the group, firing and killing some of the men that relentlessly pursued them.

The rebel’s passed by the Jedi’s X-wing and quickly went up the freighter’s landing ramp.  Artoo-Detoo called alarmingly to Luke and sighed when he got no answer.

Multiple blaster fire answered his mechanical inquiry.

The little droid, seeing his master being pursued, fired up the one man fighter’s engines.  Fueled fire burst from the four engines and set ablaze the first few of the Mandalorian Hunters that had closely followed the rebels.  Their screams filled the hanger and kept the other Hunters at bay.

“Tell Lando we’re all on board Chewie and get us the hell out of here!” Han yelled after everyone had entered the star ship and the landing ramp was sealed shut.

“Oh my, thank the Maker you’re back in one piece Master Luke,”  See-Threepio exclaimed as he followed behind them.

Han, knowing that there was little hope for the injured man, led them to his personal quarters.  He helped Freya lay Terell on his bed then turned to leave for a moment to automatically retrieve a medical kit.  “Out of the way Goldenrod, make yourself useful and go tell Artoo that Luke’s with us.  He’ll have to follow.”

“Yes Captain Solo,” said the droid.  He turned and left the room after the Corellian man.

                                                               * * *
Artoo-Detoo’s wild beeps came over the comm amid the sounds of blaster and ship fire.
“Yes Master Luke is fine--” See-Threepio jumped and shouted in distress when sparks flew out next to him after a blaster shot ricocheted off the ship’s exterior, “--Ahh!!--Just follow the  Falcon, Artoo!  Quickly!!”

The astro mech’s brave comment made See-Threepio huff in exasperation.
“You’re going to end up as scrap!  you stupid junk pile!” the golden translator yelled into the comm.  “The Falcon has shields to protect her, so stop playing the hero and lift off!”

                                                                * * *
Artoo-Detoo was already raising Luke’s ship into the air, even before Lando piloted the Falcon out of the hanger.  Luke’s unmanned ship rotated while it rose up and out of the hanger.  With a final burst from the X-wing’s engines, the rebel fighter shot after the Corellian freighter.

Luke’s loyal droid programed the destination that Lando sent him into the ship’s computer.  Ten minutes later both ships disappeared into hyper space, leaving Zirus Five far behind them.   

                                                               * * *

A surviving Hunter staggered out of the burning hanger and into another docking bay, several doors away.  He made his way to the ship that sat in waiting.  Smoldering and bruised he staggered to the ship’s small hold, where his leader sat panting and stubbornly clinging to life.

Solaren diligently sat up and pushed away the help of his personal medic when his second in command entered.

“What happened?”

The Hunter pulled off his smoldering armor, dropped the smoking metal and flopped down on the floor of the ship, next to his friend panting, “Skywalker got away with the others.”

Solaren’s face contorted in pain and his medic rushed to help him again.

“You must relax sir,” he told him, “And keep the pressure on that eye or you will lose it for good.”

Solaren pulled the blood soaked cloth from his left eye, revealing that it was a mangled mess in his socket, “Do not give me false hope medic!  I know it’s a total loss!  Now just shut up and fix what can be saved!”

The medic set to work, while Solaren spoke with his man.  

“How many did we lose, Kaimon?”

The Hunter shook his head, “We are all that’s left of our team.”  Kaimon swallowed and panted in pain.  “I don’t get it, that last shot of yours should have killed the woman and crippled the Jedi?”

“That witch knocked off my aim when she shot me,” Solaren admitted bitterly, “And I wasn’t expecting that other one to jump in the way.”

“What should we tell the Emperor?” Kaimon asked, sounding very worried.

“Nothing.”

Solaren flinched painful away from the cleaning fluid that the medic poured over his wound to numb the area.

“What are we going to do, then?” Kaimon panted.

“What we always do,” Solaren said with a cool growl.

He watched with his good eye as the medic removed his useless one and placed it in a glass container.  Solaren picked up the glass and stared at his mangled eye floating in the blood tinged fluid within and made a chilling declaration.

“I want that Jedi bastard and that little witch to pay for what they’ve done to me.”

“And what of the Emperor?”  Asked Kaimon next.

“He can have what’s left of the Jedi when I’m through with him.  Skywalker thinks he’s killed me and now I’m going to show him just how wrong he is.”

“Hold still, sir,” said the medic as he set to work stitching up the blaster wound that Lana had first hit him with.
                                                               * * *