Thanks. All the same, I've included something near the end I think you'll like.
Part 6
In the speeding turbolift, Lissa struggled to remain calm. The cables had wound around her wrists and ankles, much like constricting snakes.
A part of her hoped that Bellan would not follow. That she would get in the ship and get to safety. Another part desperately hoped that her lover would come for her. In her heart, she knew which would happen.
I trust you with my life.
The lift stopped and the doors opened. Moving as if they were alive, the cables slithered across the cold floor, dragging her along.
She was in the engine room. Glowing panels in the centre of the room provided light for half of the chamber. The other half was wreathed in shadow.
The animated cables stopped moving in the illuminated section. She could see movement in the shadows. Thankfully, few details of the creatures could be seen. They could, however, be heard. An incomprehensible series of clicks, gibbers and yelps issued from the darkness.
Then came a single word in a low, deep voice. “Enough.”
At once the creatures fell silent.
At last, Bellan reached the lift car. Opening the hatch, she dropped smoothly into it. Spotting Lissa, her heart leapt and she ran through the open doors.
Lightsabre in hand, she cut her loose with a series of quick and precise strikes. “Baby, are you okay?” she asked as she took her hand and helped her up.
“I’m fine, thank you” Lissa replied. She glanced warily at the shadowed half of the room. “We have to get out of here.”
“No” hissed the voice she had heard before. “No one leaves.”
Someone stepped into the light, dressed in a decaying brown robe. It reached up and flicked back its hood. Bellan and Lissa stepped back as they saw the face of Derek Zeko.
His lips had been sliced off, fixing his face into a ghastly, permanent grin, made all the more horrible by the fact that his teeth had been filed into sharp points. All of his hair was gone and two long sharp needles had been driven through each cheek. His eyes gleamed insanely.
“Master Zeko, listen to me” Bellan said gently. “Remember, you’re a Jedi. We don’t kill innocent people.”
He said nothing, but his deaths-head grin seemed somehow to widen. He drew his lightsabre, igniting a dark indigo blade.
Bellan shrugged off her robe and raised her own blade. “Lissa, go!”
“I’m not leaving you!”
Before she had a chance to reply, Zeko was charging with a flurry of attacks. Bellan parried each one then twisted out of his reach. She silently thanked Master Yoda for the training he had given her.
Again Zeko came at her, this time circling and trying to thrust in behind her blade. She deflected it and countered with several quick slashes, forcing him back. He dropped into a crouch and sliced at her ankles; she jumped over the indigo sabre, flipping in mid-air to land on her feet.
Zeko stepped back and lowered his blade. For a moment, Bellan hoped he had seen reason, but then he held out a hand to the darkness. More of the black cables slithered out, straight towards her.
Bellan’s green lightsabre flashed, severing the cables. Zeko hissed in satisfaction. He raised his weapon, hoping to strike while she was preoccupied.
Lissa hit him in the back of the head with a metal pipe she had found. He screamed in rage and slashed wildly at her. She jumped back, easily dodging the wild blow. Snarling, Zeko was about to come after her, but Bellan had disposed of the last cable and he barely blocked a strike aimed at his head.
They fought for several moments, slashing, hacking, stabbing, neither one gaining the upper hand. Then Zeko saw that Bellan seemed to be tiring. He came on with a series of powerful slashing blows that she parried, but forced her back, bit by bit.
Bellan fell back, supporting her weight on one hand, one leg bent and the other outstretched. In her other hand, she held her lightsabre out. Zeko ran right on to the glowing point. He gasped in shock.
She stood, yanking her blade free. Zeko tried one last desperate blow. She easily dodged it and sliced him across the midsection. He fell face down, dead.
Lissa ran to her. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. We…”
She was cut off by a shriek of rage from the shadows. A ball of crimson flames came hurtling towards them.
Bellan raised her hand, not trying to stop the fireball, merely deflect it from its course. It veered off to the left, safely missing her and Lissa.
Lissa tracked the fireball’s new trajectory. Her eyes widened as she saw what it was going to hit.
The flaming sphere smashed right into the ship’s reactor. Warning lights flared up, pulsing wildly.
Bellan and Lissa ran for the turbolift. Lissa tapped the buttons as quickly as she could. The doors closed and they began to rise. Finally, the doors opened and they hurried out. They raced into the waiting airlock, Lissa yelling to Una to take off.
The airlock disengaged and the rescue ship drew away. Its engines fired and it blasted away. They watched on a viewing screen as the Pioneer exploded in a white-hot ball of energy, noiseless in the vacuum of space.
Bellan Kotle stood before the Jedi Council, having finished giving her report. Yoda and the other Masters were silent for a moment.
Then Master Rahown, a Wookie with silver-tipped fur growled something. The translation device he wore on his belt converted it into words, < do you have any idea what caused the change in Master Zeko? >
She shook her head. “No Master. At first I thought that the creatures we encountered were somehow controlling him. But then it seemed that he was charge of the creatures, as if he was their leader. Perhaps simply being in that other world affected his mind.”
Another Master spoke up. “How was the Pioneer able to return?”
Before she could answer, Yoda raised his hand. “Enough. Listened to the report we all have. Your questions will not find answers now.” He nodded at Bellan. “Done well you have. Go now.”
She bowed her head. “Yes Master.”
She left the Jedi Council chamber. Lissa stood outside waiting for her.
“How did it go?”
“It was fine. Are you okay?”
Lissa sat down. “I am now” she replied.
On the way back to Coruscant, the reality that nearly all of her crew were dead had finally hit her. She had started crying and Bellan had been there to hold her, to stroke her hair and gently kiss her. “It’s okay baby,” she had said. “ I’m here. It’s okay.”
Bellan sat next to her and took her hand. Lissa looked into her eyes. “Thank you for being here.”
“Where else would I be?” She leaned closer. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
They kissed deeply.
End.