[Present]

  The silence was so loud Nico could hardly think. Today there was no chatter. There was only soundless anticipation. Everyone waited with baited breath for those doors to open. This was it. This was the only shot any of them would ever have at freedom.

  Kell was breathing heavily next to Nico. His hands shook uncontrollably as he tried to keep up the illusion of working. Nico looked over at him. She watched him shake for only a moment before reaching her hand over and resting it on his lap. He looked over at her with fear so palpable it threatened to swallow Nico up as well if she let it. Instead, she shook her head and gave his thigh a little squeeze. Words didn’t need to be shared for him to know what she meant. Things were going to be okay.

  Vynn glanced at the door for the thousandth time this shift. He knew each second was one second closer to freedom. He turned toward the rest of the inmates, giving them a nod. Each of the inmates had their tools at the ready.

  Then, the moment came. The defense turrets powered down, lowering their heads to the ground. The doors screeched open, one after the other. In the confusion, two guards quickly grabbed their blaster rifles and stepped into the hallway connecting the work bay to the rest of the facility. They raised their weapons. “Everybody, stay where you are!”

  Silence filled the room once again for the briefest moment as every single inmate in the room had to make the final decision. Then, Vynn screamed out as loud as he could, “Now!!!”

  All of the inmates started yelling as they started throwing tools at the two guards. The guards were only able to fire off a shot or two before they found themselves being pelted by hydrospanners and cargo grippers. The cargo loaders ran forward in the confusion, closing the gap between them quicker than the guards could lift their weapons again.

  Nico pushed herself up from where she had been working and ran forward while the rest of the inmates followed behind her. The cargo loaders started beating the guards senseless, and Nico watched as Vynn killed one with the handle of his cargo gripper. He grabbed the guard’s blaster rifle and ran forward, blasting the remaining guard. “Come on! Let’s go!”

  Another one of the cargo loaders grabbed the remaining blaster rifle and the two armed inmates ran into the observation room. They quickly blasted the remaining guards before they could raise their weapons. One of the observation officers managed to hit the alarm button just before a blaster bolt collided with his chest and he fell back into his chair, lifeless. Vynn ran up to a rack that was filled with blaster rifles, ushering in the remaining inmates. “Go! Go! Go!”

  The inmates scrambled over each other to try and arm themselves as the alarm blared around them. Nico took a few calm steps into the room before bending over and picking up one of the blaster rifles belonging to a deceased guard. She raised it up in the air and gave Vynn a nod.

  Vynn nodded back before shouting again. “Shoot every guard you see! It’s your life or theirs! Come on!”

  Once most of the inmates were armed, the group started running forward. Nico motioned for Kell to follow. “Come on. Now or never.”

  “Now or never,” he repeated to her before turning and following the horde of inmates.

  The sounds of blaster fire echoed through the corridors of the prison. The once bleak, black walls now lit up red from the light of heated plasma. A few inmates dropped here and there, but just as many guards fell as well. Many of the guards were scrambling. The thought that the prisoners would ever try something like this had never crossed their minds. Each one fell easily. In fact, to Nico, it felt a bit too easy. She knew there were more guards in the facility than the ones they had seen.

  They reached a section of the hallway where the path forked off to the right, toward freedom. Straight ahead, however, Nico knew her belongings were waiting for her. The moment the inmates rounded the corner, however, the source of Nico’s worry became apparent. A horde of guards with riot shields were waiting down the hallway. The moment the inmates revealed themselves, they started firing.

  So many inmates were immediately cut down that Nico could hardly process it all. Their number dropped down by more than a third. Still, the inmates kept firing and pushing. Kell rounded the corner and began firing on the guards. He only got a few missed shots off before a blaster bolt collided with his shoulder and then another hit him right in the chest. The impact of the blaster bolts sent him flying backwards, joining the rest of the dead inmates.

  Nico watched with wide eyes as she fell. She gritted her teeth and turned away, yelling to the other inmates. “Back the kriff up!”

  On command, the inmates ducked behind the cover of the corners. Nico could hear the footsteps of hard, armored boots against metal as the guards advanced. She immediately twisted her blaster around in her hand and started taking it apart.

  “I hope you’ve got another trick up your sleeve, kid!” Vynn called over to her as he occasionally looked around the corner and fired off a stray shot in an attempt to slow down their impending doom.

  “Just one,” Nico answered as she pulled the sturm dowel out of her blaster’s power pack. She then pushed her back up against the wall and twisted her body around, throwing her blaster at the group of guards with all the power she could muster. The sound of blaster fire was replaced with the piercing sound of an explosion. As Nico heard the blaster fire stop, she used her entire arm to motion for the group to continue. “Now! Go! Go! Go!”

  The inmates quickly darted into the hall and started firing again. The group slowly moved forward as they began cutting down the disoriented guards one by one. Soon, the blaster fire was returned again, but the organization that had given the guards an edge was gone. It was an all-out firefight now.

  Nico ran over to the center of the hallway, looking out to see the inmates pressing forward. She watched for a moment longer before nodding. It was time. She turned and ran straight forward down the hallway, away from the firefight. She opened up a door at the end of the hall and ran into the room filled with lockers. It took her seconds to find the one where they had left her stuff. “1 7 0 8 9,” she muttered out loud as she punched the code in. The light on the locker switched from red to green, and she immediately yanked it open. She grabbed her bag, checking it briefly to make sure everything was inside before throwing it on her shoulder. She then ran off back down the hallway.

  She paused as she reached the hallway where the firefight raged on. The inmates had gained considerable ground, but they still were taking heavy losses. Nico looked down where Kell had fallen. Her eyes locked with his lifeless ones. That bright smile that he once had was gone, replaced with an infinite cold, dead stare. Nico closed her eyes for a moment before shaking her head. She straightened her bag on her shoulder and turned around, sprinting off toward the work bay. She grabbed a commlink off the body of one of the guards on the way, switching it to the next frequency.

  “Viz! If you can hear me, I am headed to the climb now. Get to the work bay as fast as you can.” She stuffed the commlink into her pocket and ran through the doors into the bay. She reached one of the work tables and looked out the hangar at the climb across the chasm. She reached into her bag and started reaching around, panting from all of the running and nerves.

  “So, this was your plan all along?” A familiar voice came from behind Nico. “Hands out of the bag and on your head.” Nico complied, putting her hands on her head as she slowly turned around to see Vynn with a blaster pointed at her. “So, all of this was… what, a distraction? Keep the guards off you while you get away in a starship?”

  Nico quickly darted her eyes around, assessing her surroundings before speaking. “How many of them do you think are actually going to make it out? And how many do you think will survive on the streets of Manda without getting caught again? I needed a guarantee." She sighed, letting her posture relax. "I was going to tell you….”

  “Oh come on. You really expect me to believe that.” He shook his head. “You’re smart, kid. I’m not going to lie. I didn’t expect this from you. So what’s next? You climb up and just escape? What about the launch codes?”

  “The droid has them.” Nico spoke plainly without hesitation. “He is on his way here. We were going to pick him up and then get out of here.”

  “We?”

  “You’re here, are you not? I knew you would figure it out. Afterall, you are the one who taught me.” She took a deep breath and relaxed her posture. “For years, I dreamt of you coming back to save me. To take me off Ventano. Even after you left me, all I ever wanted was to travel the stars with you. Every night, I imagined you coming back to Ventano to pick me up. I imagined all of the adventures we would have in the galaxy… all of the things we could steal! It is all I ever wanted. And now is my chance.” She slowly started lowering her hands as she talked. She spoke confidently and genuinely, starting to use her hands to enunciate her point. “I didn’t tell you because I needed you to believe they had a chance. I was a kid when you tricked me, so it was easy. But I know from experience, you’re not a good liar. They wouldn’t follow you if you weren’t sure. So I hung back. I let you see me come in here so we could escape together.”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Vynn’s blaster slowly lowered as she spoke, and his gaze lowered along with it. When his eyes shot back up, however, his blaster didn’t. “And what’s stopping me from just taking the ship and droid for myself?”

  When his gaze lowered, Nico moved her hand behind her, starting to feel around for a tool on the table. “You’re not a good liar, but I also know you’re not stupid. The droid only listens to me.” Seeing that he was still a bit unsure, Nico growled in frustration. “Come on! We don’t have time for this. The guards could be here any second.”

  He nodded slowly, letting his blaster rest fully at his side. “Alright kid, you’ve convinced me.” He took a few steps forward before turning to look at the climb. “So, how are we getting across the gap?”

  Nico wrapped her fingers around a wrench. The moment his back was turned to her, she pulled it around and slammed it into his head. Vynn fell to the ground with a yelp of pain, dropping his blaster. He tried to turn around and reach for it, but Nico managed to grab it first. She raised the blaster up and pointed it at his face as he looked at her with pleading eyes. “Be careful who you trust,” she repeated to him as she squeezed the trigger. Her face was drowned in red light for the briefest moment as she fired a singular blaster bolt at his head. As he slumped to the ground, lifeless, she tossed the blaster to the side.

  She reached into her bag again and pulled out a grappling line. She unwrapped it as she broke into a sprint toward the edge of the hangar. She swung the hook around it a few times before throwing it up at a pipe that jutted out over the chasm. She pulled it tight as it wrapped around it and kept running for the edge. She held onto the line tightly before jumping off the edge of the dock. She immediately felt a gust of wind against her as the ground beneath her disappeared and her legs dangled over the infinite void below her. As the line reached the end of its arc, she let go, hurtling herself toward the wall.

  Her body collided with the wall and bounced off. She reached up and grabbed a pipe before she could fall, causing her body to pull back in and collide with the wall again. She grunted, losing her breath from the impact. She found a hole for her feet, steadying herself as she looked down over her shoulder. The pit below her seemed limitless. One wrong move and she’d be swallowed up by it. She took one last moment to collect herself before looking up and reaching for the next section of wall. She started climbing slowly, using pipes and grates and anything that was grabbable to push herself upward. She reached up for a wet pipe and pulled, but she immediately faltered and fell. In a panic, she reached out and grabbed the first thing that she could find, catching herself on a small circular peg. Before she could slip again, she dug her feet in and looked up, reaching for the next grabbable section. There was no time to slow down.

  Behind her, the alarm continued to wail. She heard the muffled sound of a voice over an intercom coming from inside, but she couldn’t tell what it said. Instead, she kept climbing. Bit by bit she pulled herself up. She struggled to keep her grip as the wind only seemed to get stronger. Her hair had grown much longer in captivity, making it impossible for her to see through it when the wind blew it in her face. Her clothes clung tightly to one side of her body with strength that Nico envied as each step became harder than the last.

  She reached up for a pipe, but just before her hand reached it, a blaster bolt collided with it. Nico paused and turned around to see a few of the guards in the hangar down below. They each had blaster rifles trained on her and were firing in her direction, peppering the wall around her. Nico was saved only by distance and poor aim at this point.

  “Dank ferrik,” she muttered under her breath. She held onto the wall tightly with one hand as she reached into her bag with the other to find her commlink. She raised the commlink to her mouth as she looked up. “Viz! I need you to deal with those guards now!”

  The robotic voice of her newly acquired companion came through shortly after. “I am not - programmed for any - sort of - violence. That is not - my primary - directive.”

  Nico gritted her teeth as she pulled the commlink up again. “I don’t give a kriff what you were programmed for! Right now, you have a new primary directive. Protect me!” She stuffed the commlink back in her pocket before starting to climb again.

  Blaster bolts continued to fly all around her, colliding with the wall and spraying sparks all around Nico. Parts of the wall came off in some places, hurtling down into the endless pit below. Nico never stopped moving, however. She couldn’t stop moving. She continued from one step to the next. As she stepped onto a section of wall that only barely connected with the rest, a blaster bolt flew into one of the hinges and caused it to falter. The right side of the section dropped down before the whole thing started to swing around, taking Nico with it. Nico gritted her teeth and jumped off it, catching herself on a nearby pipe just before the section fully disconnected and fell off the wall. “Come on,” she yelled at no one. She could hardly even hear herself over the wind and blaster bolts.

  As she finally stabilized, she looked up just as a blaster bolt collided with a grate and caused it to disconnect, falling straight down at Nico. Nico let out a yelp of surprise before pushing off the wall as hard as she could and jumping off to the right. She just barely managed to catch herself on an antenna before the grate hit right where her hands previously were. It broke the pipe completely, causing it to swing out a spray water all over Nico’s side. Nico shook her head and kept climbing. “Come on, Viz!!”

  She heard a loud crash and turned around, seeing a box swing around and collide with a few of the guards. Some of them fell to the ground, while others were sent hurtling off the edge. Nico couldn’t help but grin. That grin didn’t last long, however, as her gaze raised up to the turrets that had been trained on the wall. Lights began flashing on them. They were booting up.

  “Kriff!” Nico turned around and kept climbing. She was almost there. She was almost free. She just had to make it a little bit further. Just a few more steps and she would be out of harm’s way. She reached up, curling her fingers around the edge of the hangar where her ticket out rested. Before she could pull herself up any further, however, a stray blaster bolt collided with her leg.

  Nico screeched in pain, whipping her head around to see that some of the disoriented guards were back up and shooting. She gritted her teeth as she tried to push her leg up against the wall again, but it was too much. The searing pain was blinding. Putting her weight on it felt like her leg was going to explode. “Come on!!!” She pleaded with nothing, looking up at the ledge she held onto. She was so close.

  She could hear the sound of the turrets stirring to life. She gritted her teeth and shook her head. She wasn’t dying here. She pushed her wounded leg up against the wall and pulled with all her might. She let out a scream so loud that she could actually hear it this time. She couldn’t think or see anything at this point. All she felt was intense, blinding pain, and an unyielding drive to survive. She pulled herself over the ledge and rolled into the hangar just as a flurry of heavy blaster bolts collided with the wall where she had been, filling the air with sparks and parts of the wall.

  Nico laid on her back in the hangar, panting loudly. She opened her eyes, greeted with the view of bright lights on the ceiling of the hangar bay. She wasn’t dead. Not yet.

  She rolled around and pushed herself up to her feet. She limped toward the ship as fast as she could while trying to keep weight off her leg. The ship was a large lethisk-class freighter. Nico didn’t know much about ships, but it seemed pretty fancy. She hobbled up the ramp on the side and into the ship. The interior was certainly more fancy than she had been inspecting, but it was caked in a layer of dust so thick that she left foot prints. She quickly made her way to the cockpit and sat down in the pilot’s seat, letting out a sigh of relief when she didn’t have to walk anymore.

  “Ok. Should be easy, right? Just like Theia’s ship.” She started flipping switches and pressing buttons all around the cockpit to power the ship on. With great difficulty, the engines slowly whirred to life. “Come on, I know you can do it.” She encouraged the ship as she wrapped her fingers around the controls. “You get me out of this, and I’ll give you all the love you deserve.”

  She pulled back on the controls, bringing the ship up into the air. Slowly, she turned the ship around and pulled it out of the hangar. The moment she hit the open air, however, those turrets started pelting the sides of the ship. “Fratz,” Nico yelled as the ship stuttered and jerked from the incoming blaster fire. She reached into her bag and pulled out her commlink while pressing the controls forward. The ship picked up speed and flew off into the dark chasm.

  “Viz,” Nico screamed into the commlink as she pushed the ship down and around, making a u-turn in the air. “When I tell you to jump, I need you to kriffing jump, got it?” She didn’t wait for a response before picking up speed back toward the hangar. She twisted the ship around to its side with the side ramp facing upward toward the hangar. She started counting in her head as she kept the ship at a fast but consistent speed in its approach to the hangar. She then screamed into the commlink, “jump! Now!”

  She could see the red surveillance droid float off the edge and start falling down toward her. She hit the throttle and caught the droid in the exit ramp without stopping. After hearing the thud of Viz landing in the ship behind her, she straightened the ship out and closed the ramp, starting her ascent. The turrets continued to fire at her, but she was going too fast for them at this point.

  “Viz! Upload those codes, now!” She gripped the controls harder as she slowly arced her ascent upward. The ship came speeding out of the chasm, giving Nico her first view of Manda since she had arrived.

  Viz quickly got to work behind her after picking himself up off the ground. He floated over to the console next to her and inserted a scomplink that came out of one of his claws. The scomplink twisted and turned, clicking repeatedly in Nico’s ear.

  The ship ascended up into the clouds that surrounded Manda and then broke through them, leaving that atmosphere. Then, Nico saw it. There was a massive imperial harrower looming over the planet, blotting out the sun from view entirely. It was a source of eternal night over the planet now.

  “Viz,” Nico yelled in panic as the harrower got closer and closer. The turrets on the ship all began turning in their directions, priming themselves to fire. “Hurry up!”

  Viz didn’t say a word in response. Just as the turrets locked on, they started to power down. Nico’s ship zoomed past the turrets and above the harrower as she celebrated, “Yes!” Before she could even think of jumping to lightspeed, however, three imperial starfighters flew out of the hangar and twisted around toward Nico. “No!”

  Nico twisted the controls around and dived the ship down to avoid the incoming fire from the blaster cannons of the starfighters. “Viz! I need you on the guns!”

  “That is not - something that-”

  “Primary directive!” Nico cut him off as she continued to pull around evasively. Without another word, Viz floated back to access the guns in the back.

  Shortly after, Nico’s ship started returning blaster fire at the starfighters behind them, causing the group to scatter evasively. Viz managed to take out one of the starfighters before it could react, but the other two zoomed off to regroup.

  Nico started flying across the top of the harrower, twisting around obstacles as the starfighters came back around. She flew directly for the bridge of the ship toward the back. The starfighters straightened behind Nico’s ship in pursuit, resuming fire once again.

  “Hold on,” Nico yelled as the ship zoomed toward the bridge. Just before they reached it, Nico pulled up. The bottom of the ship grazed against the wall under the bridge, causing sparks to spray out. One of the starfighters, however, wasn’t so lucky. As Nico’s ship zoomed out of the way, the starfighter couldn’t pull up in time. It collided with the wall and exploded.

  Nico flew the ship upwards and away from the flagship as the remaining starfighter pulled up and followed closely behind. As the starfighter locked on again, it resumed fire. A few of the shots hit their mark, colliding with the side of one of the engines. Nico quickly put all of the power into the reverse thrusters, causing her ship to suddenly come to a halt. The starfighter zoomed off past her, unaware of her plan. The moment the fighter came into view, Nico fired the forward facing cannons, destroying it.

  “Take that, scudsuckers.” Nico grinned as she activated the forward thrusters again. The damaged engine sputtered, spraying sparks behind her, but the ship still continued to fly for now. She spun around and started flying away from the harrower.

  “I believe - they are sending more-”

  “I know that,” Nico retorted before turning to the navcomputer. As she went to select her coordinates for a jump to hyperspace, she froze. Everything was wrong. She had seen a working navcomputer before and every single thing on this one was wrong. “Why… what is wrong with the navcomputer?”

  “This ship - is approximately - three hundred years old. It is - likely it has - never been properly - updated.” Viz floated into the cockpit behind Nico.

  “Can… you do something about that?” Nico looked back at Viz.

  “No.”

  Nico groaned and closed her eyes, turning back around. She shut her eyes tighter, taking in a deep breath. “We have to make a blind jump.”

  “The odds of - surviving-”

  “I get it!” Nico opened her eyes again and grabbed the hyperspace controls. “The odds of surviving here are zero though.” She gripped the handle of the lever tightly. “Come on, Force. Be on my side, for once. Please….” She waited a few seconds, letting her prayer hang in the air. She then slammed the lever forward. The stars around the viewport suddenly blurred and then zipped past her, flooding the cockpit in blue light as the ship entered hyperspeed.

  Nico was just about to pull the ship out of the jump, but the ship did it for her. Suddenly, the damaged engine exploded. The explosion immediately ripped her out of hyperspace, dropping her in the atmosphere of a neighboring planet. Before Nico could even react to the explosion, the gravitational pull of the planet started to pull her ship into it.

  “Kark!” Nico grabbed the controls with both hands again and tried to use the remaining engines to regain control over the ship. “Kriff! Fratz! Hold on!” Viz started floating around in confusion to see what he could grab onto with his little claws.

  The planet was covered in water with various large islands dotted around. Nico could tell where she was immediately as she had been there many times before. Rishi. Nico twisted the ship around and used the remaining thrusters to direct the ship toward one of the bigger islands. The ground came at her so fast she didn’t have time to formulate any plan other than hope she survives. The ship collided with the ground with a boom so loud it could probably be heard for miles. The moment she hit the ground, Nico was forcefully jolted forward, hitting her head against the controls. In an instant, it was over.