Chapter 23

At the same time Renn was fighting in the streets of Mos Espa, Qui-Gon and Anakin were dealing with a problem of their own out in the desert.

They had almost made it back to the queen's ship when Qui-Gon had heard a speeder heading towards them. He turned to see a dark robed Zabrak man speeding towards the on a speeder-bike, he was heading straight for Anakin and looked like he was aiming to run him over.

"Anakin duck!" Qui-Gon yelled in alarm and Anakin was able to dive to the side just in time to avoid being hit by the speeder bike. "Run!" Qui-Gon shouted to Anakin as he ignited his lightsabre and prepared to fight the Zabrak.

Anakin sprinted towards the open hatch to the ship. He glanced back over his shoulder to see the Zabrak man jump off his speeder igniting his own lightsabre as he flipped through the air.

Qui-Gon began fighting with the mysterious Zabrak but was soon pushed back as he was surprised by his foe's ferocity, skill, and strength. His opponent blocked every attack he made and responded with vicious attacks of his own that Qui-Gon was barely able to block.

Finally making it to the Queen's ship Anakin threw himself up the ramp and into the ship. As soon as he was onboard, he started raising the alarm about what was happening outside. Obi-Wan heard the commotion Anakin was making and ordered the pilots to start the ship so they could fly over to help Qui-Gon escape.

Qui-Gon realising that he was probably outmatched by his opponent's skill with a lightsabre, so he was looking for another way to get an advantage. Trying to use the environment to his advantage Qui-Gon used the force to send a large cloud of sand towards the Zabrak's head.

The Zabrak became enraged as he was blinded by the sand in his eyes. He began swinging his lightsabre around wildly trying to hit Qui-Gon. Qui-Gon stepped back and regarded his opponent warily, despite having been blinded the Zabrak's wild swings made it difficult to attack him.

Qui-Gon saw the queen's ship approaching with its ramp still down from the corner of his eye and decided that retreating was a better idea than continuing the fight. He jumped backwards and landed on the open ramp of the ship and soon the ship was heading away from the planet and plotting a course to take them to Coruscant.

The Zabrak cleared his eyes and glared at the retreating ship and watched his prey escaped with barely concealed rage.

-

"So, who are you guys?" Renn asked the twi'lek girl sat next to him.

After leaving Tatooine Renn had carried the unconscious girl to the Speedy Vagabond's medical bay followed closely by Opal and the twi'lek girl. Renn placed the girl gently on a bed in the medical bed then made way for Opal to examine her with Sapphires help.

Renn had then sat on a bench next to the twi'lek girl so that they were out of the way. He then started to question the twi'lek girl in hopes of finding out who they were and why those men were attacking them.

"Huh, who me?" The girl said nervously, the fight and suddenly finding herself in a new place had left her quite scared.

"It's alright you're safe, no-one is going to hurt you here." Renn told her trying to reassure her. "Could you tell us who you and your friend are and why those men were attacking you?"

The girl nodded slowly before speaking. "My name is Seela, and my friend is called Shae." Seela then took a breath before continuing.

"My parents sold me into slavery to Gardulla the Hutt, but I was able to escape before they put a tracking chip in me. I was living on the streets when I found Shae, she was running away from something I think, but she started looking out for me and we became friends.

I didn't think Gardulla was looking for me after I ran away but then the man in the fancy clothes found us. He was a high-ranking member of Gardulla's organisation, and he said he was going to kill Shae and force me to be a slave to Gardulla. Then you arrived and saved us.

Is Shae going to be, okay?" Seela looked over at the medical bed where Shae was lying with Opal next to her listening to Sapphire explain what was wrong and what she should do.

Opal had been learning how to be a healer from Sapphire, but this was the first time she had had to try and heal someone with serious injuries, so Sapphire was controlling a medical droid and doing most of the work while Opal helped and learned more about what to do.

Renn looked over at the bed then turned back to the worried Seela. "I'm sure she is going to be fine; Opal and Sapphire will look after her."

After a while Opal walked over to the bench and looked at Seela, "Hi Seela I'm Opal. We have been treating your friend and she is going to be okay, but she's been hurt pretty badly. She's unconscious at the moment and it might be a while before she wakes up."

Seela nodded slowly before looking at Shae, she was clearly worried about her friend, and she hoped she would get better soon.

"We are on our way to Coruscant at the moment because we have some business to take care of there. I can show you to a room that you can use for yourself and then get you something to eat, Sapphire will look after Shae while we are away." Renn said to Seela before he and Opal led her out of the room and towards a spare cabin that she could use.

-

Renn sat alone on the bridge of the Speedy Vagabond staring through the view screen at the empty expanse of space. Opal was helping Seela get settled and everyone else was doing their own thing.

"You feeling okay?" A soft blue glow filled the bridge as Sapphire appeared next to Renn and looked at him in concern.

Renn nodded slowly before sighing and turning to look at Sapphire, "I'm okay…... just thinking."

The door to the bridge slid open and Alpha walked in and sat in the co-pilots seat next to Renn. Renn looked at him and offered a small smile.

"You did well today. You made mistakes but you managed to protect Opal and rescue the others. You even eliminated on of the gamorreans on your own." Alpha patted Renn on the shoulder as he spoke to him.

"I didn't do much, we all probably would have been killed if you didn't show up." Renn said with a weak smile on his face.

"Probably" Alpha said, and Sapphire shot him a glare at his insensitivity.

"But you were unarmed and unarmoured, and up against six armed gamorreans, all of whom were accustomed to violence and were all about three times your size. There was also the leader who was armed with a blaster pistol. And all this while you had to protect Opal plus the two others." Alpha continued as he looked at Renn intently trying to reassure him.

"If you were armed and didn't have to worry about the others you could have done a lot better, and maybe even have solved the problem on your own." Alpha patted Renn on the head before stopping and pointing a mechanical finger straight at him, "But run of without me again and I will make you wish you hadn't." He threatened before standing and walking out of the room.

Renn locked shocked for a moment and watched the droid leave in silence. He heard Sapphire sigh from near next to him and he turned to look at her.

"What our emotionally inept friend means is you did good, and we are happy you are all right." Sapphire smiled at him, then her avatar sat next to him, and they both watched the vastness of space together.