Chapter Text
The man leaned down until his head was level with hers. “Take the helmet off.”
His voice was authoritative, calm and cool.
Like a deathtrooper at a checkpoint
Th411 could hear her heart pounding, louder than the static in her damaged earpiece.
“Why?” That was Ms916, also on her knees less than a meter away.
The man pulled down the scarf that half-covered his face.
“Because it will decrease the odds of me shooting you outright by 33%”
Faint accent. Rim? Industrial Colonies? A mustache, scruff beard and dark hair, shaggy, like he'd trimmed it with a knife.
Gun-runners, maybe Ravagers?
She pulled at the clasps as best she could with arms pinioned, lifted off and dropped her helmet. Ms916 and Ft128 did the same. All three clattered, rolling across the tilted deck floor.
The woman appeared again in the hatchway of the bridge.
“Cassian.”
His eyes flicked toward her voice but the rifle stayed steady, pointed at Th411.
“You need to see this.”
He and the woman traded places then, passing the rifle smoothly from his hands to her hands.
The damn thing stayed absolutely level the whole time.
Oh fuck. fuck, fuck, fuck.
They’re professionals.
Ft128 looked like he might throw up. Ms916 was shaking, eyes down.
i’ve gotten us all killed Dex, worse than killed, killed for nothing
The woman had also pulled back her headscarf.
Small ...1.5 or .6...brown hair, slim frame, smaller hands on the rifle but just as steady. Unusual eyes. Green.
Th411 thought of lunging at her, just to get shot, just to be done with it.
But then what would happen to the others?
“You don’t have to kill us ” Ft128 said, his voice pitched a little too high.
The woman shrugged. “I’m not the one you need to convince.”
Oh Eft, you poor fuck. They’re going to turn us in for bounty.
The man stepped back through the hatch.
“A pretty scene.”
He walked around to look at all three of them.
“So, which of you shot the navigator and which cracked open the officer’s skull?”
No one spoke.
“Come on. I’m in the mood for a story.”
“It was an accident!” Ms916 blurted out.
“Shut up!” Th411 snarled.
Those dark eyes fixed on her again. “My money’s on you for the officer.”
Th411 felt herself shivering inside her armor.
He sounds like a reprogrammer
There was a long silence.
She thought she could hear wind blowing outside the cracked hull and something else... birds maybe.
“Fine.” Th411 said.
Fuck this guy.
“Tee NO!” Ems gasped.
She looked straight at the bastard.
“You want a story? How’s this? Once upon a time I was born on Cestis but we moved to Alderaan. When I was 13 my mom married an asshole from Coruscant. I hated him and signing on then meant a fat bonus and a chance to slam the door on both of them. Turned out I was I good at it, good at playing soldier and lucky too because they assigned me to Transport Security straight out of Basic....I played everything clean, dead straight, head down. Never took a bribe, never pocketed so much a a fucking nut…the only off-book shit I ever pulled was strong-arming a drudge in Communications into letting me pm my sister. I found out she'd gotten herself emancipated and moved back to Alderaan on her own to work for some artist. Only in clean air, ten-second bursts only during downtimes. Just hi, just I'm alive, glad you're alive. Then I found out that on her nameday I'd be assigned to boring-ass a barge transfer in the Alderaan system and I snuck into a unused rig and tapped in like he'd taught me.... it was night for her there but I just wanted to see if I'd get through. She picked up....live....I couldn't fucking believe it.. and then the signal dropped. Thought Comms had busted me and nearly pissed myself but then the whole ship rocked. Found out later that our barge had dropped out of hyper-space on the edge of M10. Damn ship got hit with a shock wave so bad it nearly tore us in half but it made the jump. Bridge saved all of us by fucking .75 seconds....but right then nobody knew what was happening. I scrambled out and went sliding. Alarms were screaming red. Every monitor gone. Some buckets from bridge watch came down when it was done freaking, saying they'd seen something, something big, like an extra planet in the corner of a screen. Alderaan was gone they said, dusted. One of them started crying and wouldn't stop. Blackshirts swept in and told us to keep our mouths shut."
Ems was hyperventilating but Tee kept talking.
It didn’t matter.
"A freak geologic event" they said…that's what came down the news feeds when we hit ground again and then they stuck to that for like what? A week? A month? ”
They'll kill us or they won't.
The difference between dead deserters and live deserters was probably only a few credits anyway. It felt good to say it out loud.
“So Organa was a traitor. Fine. The rich bitch queen was a traitor. Fine. So they were bankrolling terrorists. Fine. Kill them…they have whole squads for that. It's what they did on Gorman right?…. but this was a whole fucking planet! Almost 3 billion people. She was just a glass-cutter. We’re nothing to them, any of us...cogs...less than dirt. Screw the Capitol and screw the Emperor. The Rebels are welcome to it. I’m done. I’m done.”
The man stood with arms folded, expressionless.
The woman raised an eyebrow.
“Alderaan was destroyed eighteen months ago. What took you so long?”
Bastards.
Th411 grit her teeth but Ems answered.
“There were only four of us."
Eft was still trying.
"We weren’t going to the Rebels I swear. We weren’t defecting. All we wanted was out.”
He sounded like he was begging.
Eft, don’t beg, begging will only make it worse
Green-eyes spoke again. “I take it Captain Fancy Boots was NOT in on the desertion plan?”
Eft stuttered, “We..…we tried to just knock him out and shove him into the escape pod, but..”
Ems cut him off, “He got loose! He grabbed Dex’s blaster and shot him. Kept yelling that we were traitors, that he’d see us all reprogramed and air-locked and he wouldn’t shut up.”
“Yeah,” the woman nodded with a faint almost companionable smile, ”In my experience, that kind never does.”
The man glanced back toward the bridge, “I’m guessing when he tried to get out an emergency signal someone felt obliged to bash his head into the console 5 or 6 times and then shoot out the tracking controls? Not necessarily in that order?”
He straightened as he spoke and Tee thought she noticed a trace of stiffness, as if his back hurt but he was ignoring it.
Maybe…if he turns I could make a grab for it..
But the woman was right there and took a step forward as if she read her mind.
“How did you find this place?” she asked.
Ems looked up, almost pleading.
Damn it Ems!
“It was random …none of us were cleared….. Dex was the navigator. It was his plan and he was dead. I panicked and tried punching the furthest coordinates it would take, trying to get to the UR, over the edge. I hoped we could hide, get off the regular charts and maybe float but …”
The woman gave a short laugh, “Seriously? You threw dice for navigation? Dove into hyperspace at random? The Force loves fools or so I’ve heard but that takes a prize.”
The woman and the man looked at each other and silence stretched for a very long few seconds. He tilted his head toward the cracked escape hatch. She nodded. They backed slowly out, her never quite lowering the rifle, closing the bent door behind them and cutting off most of the light.
****
“Who are these people?” Eft whispered.
“I don’t know.”
"Are they having a fucking conference?”
“I don’t know.”
“It’s like they’re married. Are there married bounty hunters?”
“Shut up Eft”
She lowered her head uncomfortably onto her zip-tied arms.
“They’re wearing Imperial uniform boots.” Ems said, “Both of them.”
****
Hours passed. Maybe. Probably.
They managed to get their legs in front of them and sat stiffly against the bulkhead wall. Ems actually seemed to fall asleep and Tee thought maybe she had too.
The light through the exit hatch was different when it dragged open again. The woman came inside and the man lingered by the door. He had the rifle but Tee could see something new in the woman’s hand. It was a vibra-knife, or at least the blade of one.
Fuck!
Tee tried to get upright but her boots slid on the floor.
“Stay calm,” the woman said.
She reached across Ems first, cut the ties on her legs then did the same for Eft and then Tee. That done she waved a hand and ducked back out through the hatch. Her partner stepped aside and out behind her without a word.
Th411, Ms916, and Ft128 looked at each other. Then half-slid, half-scrambled up against the wall, pushing to stand with bound hands and aching legs. They followed their captors out.
There wasn’t really much choice.
Tee had caught only the barest glimpse of the place during the crash but now she looked around.
Holy fuck. How were they still alive?
There was no fuel spill. In fact there was no sign of the rear engines at all. The bridge section of the transport looked to have grounded itself whole, smashing dozens and dozens of big trees ..conifers?.. on the way down to half buried itself in the sandy soil.
The air was cool and the sky slightly pinkish and blue.
She thought maybe she could smell water. Somebody had built a sizable wood fire in the newly gouged “clearing” a few dozen meters off to their left. The man pointed with the rifle and they walked down in front of him toward it. Several small dark figures were standing around and what looked to be some kind of huge haystack was piled behind them. The woman still had the knife and used it to cut the ties on their hands.
The relief in her shoulders brought tears to Tee’s eyes.
One of the small figures stepped forward so she saw that it wasn’t Human. Standing roughly as as tall as an eight or ten year old child it had bright golden eyes, was covered with smooth dark fur and wore a short skirt of blue ribbons. Its hands looked human-like with five fingers, but had smooth black skin and nails.
Her smug Basic trainer’s voice echoed in her head: “90% of all inhumans are cannibals”
“Hi,” it said, showing white pointed teeth, and dropped a cloth bag at Tee’s feet. Two similar creatures stepped forward...red ribbons, green ribbons....and dropped bags beside the first.
“Armor off,” said the woman. "Now."
Awkward, with numb fingers, all three of them stripped down to their black liners and boots.
The woman kicked away the white armor sections with the toe of her battered boot as if they disgusted her then pointed with her knife toward the bags.
“Water purification discs. Don’t waste them. Up this high, any fast running water that looks clear is probably clean enough to drink but standing water may be iffy unless it has these flowers in it.”
One of the creatures dropped a handful of flat, yellow, star-shaped flowers on top of the bags. Another laid out a row of fist-sized purple flower buds.
“Those are good to eat….whole plant is…raw, cooked, whatever. The root lasts for months. You'll run into helmet-sized fat brown birds. They nest on the ground and lay way more eggs than they can hatch for the next few weeks. Take one or two at a time and they won't care much but get greedy and empty a nest and they’ll put your eyes out. All the fin fish are good to eat except the bright yellow ones. Those aren’t poisonous ….they just taste like mud.”
“They taste fine. You just have to grill them with something acidic.”
The man had finally lowered the rifle and laid it across his lap as he sat back on a fallen tree trunk. He seemed almost nonchalant now but Tee was sure that if she tried to move a fingernail toward that rifle he’d blast her head off.
Professional.
“Watch the smaller birds," Green-eyes went on. "Whatever fruit they eat is safe for you. There's one ax, two knives, three waterproof blankets, an analog compass and a rope in the brown bag. Walk due South for 2 or 3 days and you’ll reach high-grass meadows. The Taun live there. Don’t fuck with them and they won’t fuck with you. Be careful and set watch anyplace it gets marshy. There are blue lizards. We're still a little unclear on their ecological niche but the nocturnal ones can get very very big. They bite and some of them are venomous. Definitely don’t fuck with them. They're afraid of fire but if you make one be sure to put it out and wet and stir the ashes before moving on. Am I forgetting anything?"
She glanced up at the haystack. It opened a large brown eye. Eft let out a yelp and almost fell backwards.
“Can they make baskets?” It rumbled.
“Right. Excellent suggestion. The Taun love baskets but they can't make them easily so if you want to trade, that’s an opportunity. Be good little deserters and don’t do anything stupid or Imperial. It won't get really cold here again for another 200 standard days, so you’ve got that long to learn how to survive. Assuming you manage it, do not even THINK of coming back here.”
What’s happening????? Is this a trick?
“Where are we?” Ems asked, “What is this place?”
“You are outside the Empire. Off any chart. That’s all you really need to know.”
“What about the rest of our ship?” Tee asked.
“You said you wanted to be done.”
The woman stepped close, and Tee could see there were yellow flecks in her green eyes.
Like that wildcat in grandmother’s garden on Alderaan.
“Good or bad, live or die, you’re done.”
“Bes will walk you down to the edge of their territory.” The man looked at the blue ribbons creature, who nodded. “That will give you a couple of hours of daylight to ask her more questions.” His hands still lay lightly on the rifle. “If she isn't back safe by morning, we will hunt you down and kill you. If you try to come back to whats left of this ship, we will kill you. If you try to contact the Empire in any way, we will know and we will kill you. Other than that, you are on your own. Clear?”
“You aren’t ravagers?” Ems said, eyes wide. She looked so fucking young! “Are you deserters…deserters like us? Are you trying to hide out the war here?"
The man stood up, abruptly, dark eyes narrowed. Reflexively, Tee found herself stepping in front of Ems but the woman reached over and laid a hand on her partner’s arm. He didn’t move, didn’t even look directly at at her but some kind of tension seemed to leave him.
Are there married bounty hunters?
“No.” the woman said, “There’s no hiding from this war. We’re the Rebellion. So are you, now. Get the hell out of here and keep your rebellious asses alive if you can.”