Jayne backed up against the door, eying the murky water uneasily. The others looked down as well, pointing their blasters vaguely downward.
“There's something alive in here.” Luke said.
“It's your imagination.” Mal told him reassuringly. But he didn't lower his guard either.
Suddenly Zoe jumped. “Something just moved past my leg.”
They were all looking so intently around that they completely missed the single eye-stalk that poked up out of the water and looked around. Then, a brown tentacle reached up, seized Luke around the leg, and dragged him under the surface of the brackish water.
The others cried out in alarm and tried desperately to find him to help. Briefly, the former farm boy struggled to the surface, the tentacle now gripping his entire body and wrapped around his neck.
“Blast it!” he gasped. “My gun's jammed!”
“Where?”
“Anywhere!”
Mal, Zoe, and Jayne fired at the water, while Leia tried to help Luke to his feet. But whatever had him pulled him under again. For a moment the water churned, and then was still.
There was silence, then something somewhere clanged, and Luke burst from the water, coughing.
“What happened?” Mal demanded, pulling Luke to his feet.
“I don't know, it just let go of me and disappeared.”
There was another clang and then the reason for the creature's retreat became evident.
“I got a bad feeling about this.” Jayne growled.
Then the walls began to close in on them.
*****
“Threepio! Threepio!”
The comm-link lay unattended on one of the consoles. Kaylee lay nearby, seemingly unconscious. She itched to answer Luke, but the door opened just then, and several Stormtroopers came in.
One crouched by her and shook her shoulder. She pretended to come too groggily.
“What happened?” the trooper asked. At that moment Threepio and Artoo were discovered in the closet.
“They're madmen! They're headed for the detention level!” Threepio said. “If you hurry you might catch them.”
Most of the Troopers left, leaving one left to guard the room. Kaylee grinned at Threepio, proud of his ruse. Now they just had to get out of there. It sounded like Luke and the others were still in trouble. She hastily palmed the comm-link, switching it off before the trooper could hear anything.
“I think I'd better get to the med center.” Kaylee said. “Those uh, rebels gave me quite a knock.”
The trooper nodded. Then okayed Threepio to take Artoo to maintenance. Once they were out of sight of the control room, Kaylee grabbed the interpretor droid's arm and dragged him to an out of the way computer terminal.
*****
“Threepio!” Luke shouted into the comm-link. “Threepio come in! Where could he be?” he wailed.
Zoe was trying to help Leia get to the top of the debris. Mal and Jayne were attempting to brace the walls with an old strut.
“One thing's for sure.” Mal said. “We're all gonna be a lot thinner.”
*****
Kaylee switched on the comm-link. “Luke?”
“Kaylee? Where the hell-never mind! Just shut down all the garbage smashers on the detention level! Do you hear me? Shut down all the garbage smashers on the detention level!”
Artoo trilled a query.
“Just shut them all down!” Kaylee told him. She was gripping the comm-link with a white knuckled hand, her other hand covering her mouth. After a tense moment screams came from the link.
“Oh! Listen to them, they're dying Miss Frye!” Threepio despaired. “Curse my metal body I wasn't fast enough!”
“No,” Kaylee sighed. She'd recognized Mal's and Jayne's relieved shouts. “They're okay.”
*****
“You did great!” Luke shouted. “We're okay, you did it! Hey open the pressure hatch on unit, where are we?”
Jayne was closest to the door and told Luke the number above it. Before long, they were out. Jayne of course was out first.
“Let's get out of these tin cans.” Mal grumbled. “It don't suit us.”
Once they were free of the Storm Trooper armor, Mal was starting to feel more like himself.
“Can we get out of here now?” Jayne growled. “This place gives me the-” The thing in the garbage smasher roared, and Jayne started, then fired into the unit.
“No wait they'll hear!” Leia objected. “Look, I don't know who you people are, or where you came from, but from now on, you do as I tell you okay?” Without waiting for an answer, she turned and started down the corridor.
Therefore, she didn't see Jayne and Zoe look incredulous, or the extremely dangerous look on Mal's face. Not until he seized her arm and turned her around roughly.
“Now you listen here princess.” he said, his voice low. “I don't take orders from no gorram aristocrat you understand? My ship, my crew, my orders. You understand that or you stay here.”
Before she could retort, he motioned to Zoe and Jayne to follow him.
Leia stood stunned for a moment. “I'm not an aristocrat.” she muttered.
Jayne leered at her. “I'll take some orders from ya.” She shuddered, and stuck close by Luke.
Soon enough they reached a corridor overlooking the hanger bay. Mal was always happy to see his ship, but now it looked especially attractive. It was after all, their ticket off this gorram thing.
“There she is.” he pointed. “We're close.”
Luke turned on the com link again. “Threepio, Kaylee, you copy?”
“We're here Master Luke.” Threepio answered.
“Are you safe?”
“For the moment. We're in the main hanger across from the ship.”
“The ship's kinda surrounded.” Kaylee broke in. “We can't get to 'er.”
“We're right above you.” Luke said. “Stand by.”
Leia had been staring incredulously at the vessel. All the tales she'd read as a child about princesses, and Shining Space Ships and Jedi Knights had filled her head with certain pre-conceptions about how this sort of thing was supposed to work.
She'd thought she'd put such childish thoughts aside until today. This motley crew had thrown her, and now that ship? Never in all of her stories had a Firefly class freighter appeared. “You came in that thing?” she said, amazed. “You're braver than I thought.”
Mal rolled his eyes at the backhanded compliment. “You're just about one of the most disagreeable folk I ever met.” he muttered. There was no way he'd have let an insult to Serenity stand without some retort.
“We should keep moving.” Zoe said. “They'll be lookin' for us by now.”
Mal nodded, and motioned for them to follow him. Just before the lift that would take them to the hanger, they ran into a patrol of Troopers.
“There they are!” one said. “Blast 'em!”
Mal was quicker on the trigger however, and dropped the lead Stormtrooper, sending the others running.
Mal took off after them, Jayne hot on his trail.
“Wait!” Leia tried to call them back.
“Sir?” Zoe said at the same time with the same intention. Sometimes her Captain acted on impulse and it didn't always end well.
“Get back to the ship!” Mal shouted.
Zoe sighed, and gently, but firmly directed Luke and Leia in the opposite direction.
“He certainly has courage.” the princess remarked grudgingly.
“What good will it do us if he gets himself killed?” Luke said.
“Come on.” Zoe ordered.
*****
Mal wondered how long it would take before the Stormtroopers noticed that they actually outnumbered him, six to one. Hopefully after he managed to halt his forward momentum and turn back. No such luck.
Jayne had fallen behind a little. It had dawned on him that the Stormtroopers outnumbered him and Mal quite a bit. Not that he was scared, but he didn't quite like those odds.
Mal came barreling back around the corner, dodging blaster fire. “Run!”
*****
Zoe led the way, Leia behind her and Luke bringing up the rear. He was doing an admirable job of keeping their pursuers off their tail, especially considering he was about as green as you could get.
Zoe suddenly skidded to a halt, but nevertheless, she almost plummeted into a chasm that yawned before them. Leia grabbed her arm and pulled her back from the brink.
“Thanks.” the first mate said simply. Rutting Imperial architecture. No warning signs or railings or anything.
“I think we took a wrong turn.” Luke said. Behind them, they could hear the approaching footsteps of white ceramic armor. Zoe lay down a bit of cover fire, before Leia found the control that shut the door behind them.
“There's no lock!” she despaired.
Luke had one brief moment of panic and then shot the controls. “That ought to hold them for awhile.”
“Find the control that extends the bridge.” Zoe ordered.
“Uh, I think I just blasted it.” the boy said sheepishly.
Zoe noted to herself, but did not comment, that Luke did not get a snarky remark from the princess.
“They're coming through!” was all she said. Up until then, Zoe thought that the young woman was holding up remarkably well. There was no evidence yet that the Imps were managing to open the door. But it probably wouldn't take long.
Luke suddenly had an idea. His eyes had lit on a junction of power conduits over head. Before he could say anything however, they found themselves under attack once more.
Another door, higher up in the shaft opened and Stormtroopers began to trickle through, firing at them.
Zoe and Luke returned fire. She marveled that the Troopers were such bad shots. Luke manged to hit one or two, but he was flustered, and his aim was off. Still it was serving to cover them a bit.
“Zoe,” he said. “Your belt, there should be a grappling line in there!”
One handed, still shooting back at the Imps, Zoe checked. Sure enough. “Got it. Won't hold all three of us though.”
“I'll take Leia. Can you cover us?”
“Go. Cover me when I swing over.”
Luke handed Leia his gun. She had recovered her composure and blasted away with remarkable proficiency.
Luke managed to hook his line around the conduits and Leia put her arms around his neck. She kissed him once, on the cheek.
“For luck.” she said. Then they swung.
The Stormtroopers didn't fire. They were incredulous at what had just happened. They had never expected anyone to try that.
Zoe took advantage of their surprise and quickly followed the pair on her own line. When she landed, she smirked at the Farmboy.
“You sure you've never done this before?”
*****
Mal and Jayne ran pel mel through the corridors, Stormtroopers in hot pursuit. At least they were going in the right direction.
“Ah told you droids were nothin' but trouble!” the big gunman shouted.
“You were right!” Mal agreed. “Don't let it go to your head!”
They were headed for a junction.
“Close the blast doors, close the blast doors!” the squad leader ordered.
Ahead of them, heavy doors began to shut.
“Run faster!” Mal commanded. He and Jayne put on an extra burst of speed and got through the doors, just in time.
The Stormtroopers were stymied. “Open the blast doors, open the blast doors!”
Mal breathed a sigh of relief, till he stopped just outside the hanger, seeing the squad of Imps guarding the ship.
“Think they can tell each other apart?” Jayne asked.
Zoe arrived then with Luke and Leia soon after. Mal gave her a quizzical look. He'd have thought they would have gotten there first.
“We ran into some old friends.” Zoe said simply.
“Is the ship alright?” Luke asked.
Mal smirked to think that that was the kind of question Kaylee would ask right away as well. “She seems okay, if we can just get to her.”
Across the hanger, Kaylee looked on in disbelief as the guards suddenly left their posts. “Now's our chance!” she whispered to Threepio and Artoo. “C'mon!”
The droids hurried as best they could, meeting Mal and the others on the way.
Vader couldn't help but wonder if perhaps his old Master had planned it this way. For them to meet at this specific spot, at just the right moment to distract the guards. Well it didn't matter. What mattered here and now was finishing a fight they'd had years ago. A fight that still filled him with a rage that powered his assault.
Then Kenobi did something that would puzzle Vader for a long time to come. He stopped fighting, closed his eyes and raised his saber in something like a salute. For one brief moment the Sith Lord stared at him in disbelief, then he swung his own blade, and cut the old man in half.
Or, that's what he'd expected to have happen. It would have been somewhat poetic too as he'd heard that Kenobi had killed his predecessor that way. But instead, the old man vanished into thin air, leaving just the hilt of his lightsaber and cloak behind.
Vader vaguely heard someone cry out in anguish, but ignored it. He toed the cloak curiously. Obi Wan had said he would become more powerful. Was this what he'd meant? What had just happened?
*****
Kaylee and Leia had both seemingly taken turns trying to get Luke to stop shooting at the Stormtroopers and Darth Vader and run already!
“Shoot the door Luke!” Mal shouted, his voice cutting through the din. Luke did so, but still held his ground, trying to get a shot through to Vader. But the door closed, and suddenly he heard Ben's voice, clear in his head.
“Run Luke, run!”
*****
Mal probably set a new speed record getting from the hold to the bridge. He rather hated not having Wash there already. Had he been there, the engines would already have been humming even as the doors were closing.
“Let's pick up the others and get the hell out of here.” he said, hitting the switches. As the ship lurched up from the deck and spun towards the exit he added. “I hope the old man got the tractor beam out of commission or this is going to be a really short trip.