Star Wars Character Cafe - Redemption Chapter 6

REDEMPTION

CHAPTER 6

The fighting above the forest moon of Endor had been fiacre. At one point, even the medical frigate and Shiba had been at risk, but the quick actions of some brave pilots had ensured that it and Shiba had survived.

Lak hadn’t – Flik, on board the Warrior had felt his brother die when he had sacrificed himself by slamming his X-Wing into the shields that protected the Death Star, in the hope that doing so would bring them down. It hadn’t worked of course.

Kaitlin’s voice brought him out of his reverie.

“Flik, we’re being hailed by Artea.”

“Put her through, Kat,” Flik ordered.

A second later, Artea’s voice issued over the com. She sounded surprisingly calm for the news she had to impart.

“We’ve been hit, sir. We’ve lost control of the ship and we can’t avoid the shield.”

“Stand by, Artea. We’ll see what we can do to prevent this from happening.”

“Negative, sir. There isn’t enough time, so this is goodbye sir. Out.”

Flik slammed his fist into the console, narrowly avoiding damage to it.

“Lobo, track them!” Flik barked the order at the Warrior’s AI before turning to Kat. “Kat, put us on a heading towards Artea’s side of the shield, and once there, get ready to lock a tractor beam on them. We might be able to get them out of there.”

“Mistress Artea is right; there is not enough time,” Lobo objected, lacking the usual sarcasm the AI usually employed.

Losing patience, Flik growled menacingly at the AI, “Then make time, Lobo! There has to be something this rust bucket that this rust bucket that my grandfather put together can do!”

Kat, ignoring Lobo’s outburst, changed course anyway, abruptly enough to cause Rivik to call in over the ship’s internal comlink system.

“What’s going on? You just caused me to lose my target.”

Rivik was at the quadlaser station, as was Sholinar, their job to keep enemy fighters off the ship.

“I’ll tell you later. There’s no time to explain.”

A moment later, the Wookiee voiced his concern about the change in course, but Flik just ignored him.

Time seemed to slow down as Artea and the rest of the Ackley made their way inexorably towards their appointment with the Death Star’s shields that would spell their doom.

“Err Flik, I don’t believe this!” Kat exclaimed, her voice a mixture of disbelief and excitement.

“What? What is it?” Flik asked turning to regard Kat.

“The shield’s gone! Solo’s team must have been successful at blowing up the bunker.”

“And not before time, too,” Flik replied.

“They are still going to crash, Mistress Kaitlin,” Lobo informed them. “We still won’t get there in time to prevent it.”

“Well duh!” Kat shot back at the AI. Flik’s look of disapproval stopped Kat from saying more.

“Lobo, have you projected where they are most likely to crash?”

“What do you take me for?” Lobo blurted, his sarcasm coming back into his voice. “I’m downloading the co-ordinates now.”

“At least now they have a chance,” Flik murmured.

“I’m gonna set us down near the estimated crash site.”

“No you’re not,” Flik said, adding before Kat could voice her objection. “I’m going to be landing the Warrior.”

Kat frowned at him. “You still don’t trust me in handling the Warrior?” she blurted out. “Even after what I did to get the kids out of the Eriadu System?”

Flik’s muzzle creased in an amused grin, which got even wider when he saw her pout. “Stunts like charging towards a Star Destroyer are precisely why I don’t completely trust you to handle the Warrior. Now, no more arguments.”

Kat rudely stuck her tongue out at him, but Flik pretended he hadn’t seen it.

***

What a mess, Kat thought when she saw the wreckage of the ship. The crew from the Warrior had split off into two teams to search the area for survivors, Rivik and Sholinar in one, Flik and Kat in the other.

Without even needing the use of her fledgling sensitivity to the Force, Kat knew that Flik wished Shiba, and not her, was at his side for this one, simply because of her superior medical knowledge.

Staring at the burning heap of metal, Kat said aloud, “I don’t know how anyone could have survived that.”

“They’re alive, Kaitlin,” Flik said, to reassure her. “Though if we don’t find them soon, I don’t know for how long.”

In the forest, the bellow of a Wookiee could be heard.

“Sholinar and Rivik have found them,” Flik said, with far more confidence than Kaitlin felt herself. “Come on, Kaitlin.” He broke off into a sprint in the direction of Sholinar’s call. The wolfman was fast – Kat found herself hard pressed to keep up with him and if it had not been for the link in the Force that Flik had set up between them, she was sure she would have lost him.

Flik used more mundane senses to locate Rivik and Sholinar – he just used his predator’s keen sense of smell and sight to track their path through the forest and he arrived at the scene long before Kat.

They were in a clearing, just far enough away from the wrecked ship to be safe, but no further than that as it was quite clear that the other Ackley were severely hampered by injury sustained in the crash.

He found that Zan and Shara had been badly injured in the crash and were unconscious, being guarded by Kobrossk, Rivik and Sholinar. Artea, he saw, had suffered injury but was still awake. There was no sign at all of the Gotal, Cathos.

“Where’s Cathos?” he asked Artea.

“Dead, sir. He died when his console exploded after we got hit. If we’d not had Kobrossk with us, none of us would have gotten out of that - ” she indicated the burning wreckage.

“Save your strength, Artea,” Flik interrupted her, as he could see that she was only barely clinging on to consciousness. Oh, how he wished Shiba were with him. He pushed that thought away.

Flik threw the Trandoshan a blaster rifle that was suited to his claws. Ever since he’d taken command of the Ackley, Flik had made sure that the Warrior was stocked with weapons and equipment that the dexterity challenged reptiliod could use. The Trandoshan was the only one among the ship’s crew not to have suffered any injury in the crash.

Kat arrived, out of breath. It took her a few moments to regain control of her breathing and it was only then that she noticed the absence of Cathos.

“Cathos?” she asked.

“Gone,” Kobrossk answered her.

Kat looked up at the sky and just at that moment, a fireball exploded, so bright and close it took up a significant portion of the sky. The rest, barring Artea, who had herself lost consciousness just as Kat had arrived, followed her gaze.

Kat shot a grin at Flik. “Looks like we won.”

Flik shook his furry head, disliking the fact that he’d had to dampen her enthusiasm. “Not quite. We still need to get them out of here.”

“We’d better do this quickly, Sivrak. There may still be some Imperials around who haven’t accepted the war is lost to them,” Rivik warned.

Flik nodded his agreement with the former Alpha Premier. He looked to Kat.

“I hate to do this to you, Kat, but could you go back to the Warrior and contact the Medical Frigate? Let them know we need assistance down here. Sholinar, go with her, make sure she doesn’t get lost or anything.”

“Hey!” Kat said, as Sholinar barked his acknowledgement of the order.

“The rest of us will stay here to keep our Imperial friends at bay in case they try to give us any trouble.”