[Last Of The Jedi] - 05(9)

“Do you have any news of where they might have taken Roan and Dona?” Solace asked.

“Not much, and what we know isn’t good,” Wil reported. “We know they were taken aboard a ship. We’ve heard rumors through our spy network that the ship serves as a detention center and also a courtroom — so that political prisoners aren’t tried on their homeworlds or indeed anywhere they can garner support. They are tried and sentenced in space, then taken directly to a prison world. The Empire can claim a fair trial but keep it all under wraps.”

“The plan is for the ship to travel constantly through the galaxy, picking up political prisoners,” Arnie explained. “We have all our sources working on it, but we have no idea of its present location.”

Trever felt his face fall. If Roan had been on Bellassa, they would have figured out a way to get to him. But the galaxy was a big place.

“Do you know where the ship left from?” Solace asked.

Wil nodded. “The main Imperial landing platform. They retrofitted a Corellian YT transport. It’s called the True Justice.”

“There’s only one way to find it,” Solace said. “We have to infiltrate the landing platform and gain access to their tracking system.”

Suddenly Wil’s screen began to beep. Everyone looked at it in alarm.

A squad of stormtroopers marched down the middle of the street, peeling off in groups of five to investigate each house.

“House-to-house search,” Wil explained. “New policy. They pick random quadrants of the city. Just bad luck.” He turned to Arnie. “We’ll have to execute the abandonment plan.”

Arnie nodded.

Wil turned to the others. “We’ll get you out, but we have a few procedures to follow.”

“Can we help?” Solace asked.

“Thanks for the offer, but we’ll be done in exactly fifty seconds. We’ve timed it out.”

Trever watched as Wil quickly touched the datascreen, turning off all heat and light in the house. Arnie hurried to throw large dustcovers over the furniture.

“We hope to fool them,” she told Trever. “They’ll think the owners are away.”

Wil shut down the house in just a few seconds. He hesitated for a moment. “I have to clear the computer files,” he said. “We have to leave everything out in the open, so it appears we have nothing to hide.” With a sigh, he pressed the key that wiped the information off the house computer. “The only thing that remains will be normal transactions.”

The stormtroopers were at the next house. They would be here in less than a minute.

They hurried back down the ramp to the hangar. Instead of taking one of the speeders, however, Wil accessed a hidden panel in the wall. It slid back, and he waited as the others passed through. They were in a small tunnel. The floor sloped downward and then made a sharp turn.

“We’ll come out on the street behind the house,” Wil murmured. “When they break into our house, they’ll find nothing.”

“Won’t the fake back wall make them suspicious’?” Solace asked.

“Only if they find it. We just have to hope they won’t get suspicious enough to check out the back.”

They reached another blank wall. Wil waved his hand over a hidden sensor. The wall slid back and they quickly slipped out into the cold gray afternoon. They were in an alley that ran behind a small landing platform that was shared by the neighborhood. Wil gestured to them, and they followed him into the deserted hangar.

“We keep a vehicle here, just in case,” he said. “I think it’s a good idea to get out of this quadrant.” They were heading toward the vehicle when five stormtroopers suddenly entered. The leader’s head turned. “ID does,” he ordered in his metallic voice.

“What should we do?” Arnie murmured. “Bluff our way through?”

“If they find you with outsiders, it could compromise you,” Oryon said.

“No talking allowed,” rapped out the stormtrooper. The rest of the stormtroopers headed toward them.

“I can take care of this,” Solace said.

“There’s an entire squad,” Amie said.

“Don’t worry, she’s not kidding,” Trever said. The stormtroopers raised their blasters.

Solace moved. She held out a hand and the Force slammed into the first two stormtroopers, knocking them backward. The remaining stormtroopers ran toward the group, but Solace was already moving, swinging her lightsaber in a clean arc that decapitated three with one blow. She kicked out with a foot, ducked, and turned in a complete circle and took out the leader and the remaining trooper.