Captive (27 page)

* * * * *

Sidious grumbled in aggravation. He had been stopped way too many times by soldiers asking what they should do. They should have been trained for this, but the ship personnel were not his responsibility, they were Woods's. That shouldn't surprise him. Woods had always been arrogant in thinking nothing would ever happen to this ship and that training in the event it did would be a complete waste of time.

I bet he wishes he had taken the time now.

Making his way down one of the side corridors on level nine, he tried to pick up his pace. The flyer deck was off the main corridor, which was just a short distance ahead of him. Things were falling apart quickly. The ship had already lost the turbochutes as well as power in some sections. It wasn't completely dark, for the emergency lights kicked in, but it was dark enough that it added to the already chaotic atmosphere.

Quickly dodging a beam that was falling from the ceiling, he ducked out of the way. Looking at it lying on the floor, he gave a sigh of relief, for it had only missed him by mere inches, if that. God he hoped Mikayla and Agnus were already off and not somewhere in the middle of all this mess.

He turned and headed back down the hall again, then turned a corner. He came to a complete stop, staring right into the smirking expression of Commander Woods.

“Well, well,” he said as he raised his gun to Marcone's chest. “Going somewhere, Captain?”

* * * * *

“What's our shield status, Troy?” Stefan asked. “Primary shields are still at eighty percent. As long as they stay above sixty, secondary shields will not kick in.”

“Kaycose keep an eye out for the
Triton
. I want to know the minute it leaves the docking bay.”

Nodding his head, Kaycose continued to bombard the
Shlictah
with firepower.

Taron wasn't saying much, most all his attention was on flying the ship and avoiding being hit as much as possible. The
Shlictah
was huge, so the only hope they had was to continue to hit her over and over again.

Continuing to fire upon the weak areas Sidious had pointed out as well as locations as close to the bridge as possible, they were beginning to make some progress.

Stefan could see the flyers fighting each other all around them, and he knew that soon Sidious would have to fly his way through that to get to the
Vultair
. Getting off the Destroyer was only half his battle. He knew Sidious was a good pilot, but that still didn't stop him from worrying.

Brother, he said to himself, you leave me to explain this to our father by myself, and I'll never forgive you.

* * * * *

“My God, the ship is falling apart around my ears,” Rigora said as he avoided being knocked down by a piece of the ceiling falling. He couldn't believe this was actually happening. The minute he got off this ship and back to the capital city of

Rhenari, he would see that Lord Marcone was executed for high treason. Even if he were lucky enough to get off the ship, there wouldn't be a planet anywhere he could hide. He would make sure of it.

General Carlone was directly in front of him, leading the way to his escape ship, which he had hidden on flyer deck twelve. The only problem was they couldn't get to flyer deck twelve, the hallway was blocked by fallen debris.

“We can't get to the ship, sir. We're going to have to find another way out,” General Carlone yelled over all the commotion.

“I'm open to any suggestions,” Rigora replied.

“I have a ship on level ten. If we can get to it, maybe we can get out of here.”

“Lead the way, General,” Rigora said as he motioned with his hand for Carlone to go ahead of him. Quickly, the two of them began to make their way to the stairwell that would take them to level ten.

* * * * *

“Mikayla, come on, we have to hurry,” Agnus said over his shoulder. “I'm right behind you. Go as fast as you need to, I'll keep up.”
At least I hope I will
. She winced, dodging electrical sparks and fallen debris.
My
God, it’s like being in a nightmare that you can’t wake up from
. There were men everywhere, some running, trying to get away just like they were. Others were trapped by fallen beams or already dead.
God, please let Sid be okay and please let us get out of here in one
piece.

Glancing ahead of her toward the end of the corridor, she caught sight of Sidious and heart leaped, but in the same breath, it fell. Before him stood Woods, a gun pointed at his chest.
Oh God. No. Please.

“Agnus!” she yelled, pointing toward the end of the hall.

“I see them.”

* * * * *

“Woods,” Marcone sneered.
Damn it. Why didn’t I think to have my gun out?

As Sidious watched him, he wondered if Woods was going to try to take him into custody, but then decided that would probably not be the case. Woods had hated him for years; more than likely, he would use this opportunity to kill him.

“You did this, didn't you?” Woods asked with a sneer.

Sidious remained quiet and watched, waiting for an opportunity to hopefully turn the tables. The thought of never seeing Mikayla again made him determined to find a way out of this. But so far nothing short of taking a chance and trying to grab the gun was coming to mind.

“What do you think you can accomplish by destroying this ship? He'll just build another one.”

“Will he?” Sidious asked. If everything went as it was supposed to, the prime minister wouldn't be around to build another one.

“Did you really think you would get away with this?” he asked.

Sidious shrugged. “I got away with it for ten years.”

“It's over, Marcone. I'm going to do what I should have done a long time ago.” He pulled the trigger, and Sidious braced himself for the impact, but suddenly someone jumped in front of him, taking the bullet.

“No!” Sidious yelled as Agnus was thrown against his chest. Holding Agnus with one arm, Sidious reached behind him with the other and pulled out his gun.

Woods's eyes widened, and his face drained of all color. “It's over, damn it,” Marcone sneered and fired, hitting the commander in his forehead. Woods fell back against the wall, his eyes gazing lifelessly at the ceiling.

“Oh my God,” Mikayla said as she ran forward and helped Sidious lower Agnus.

“Agnus, what were you thinking?” Sidious asked as he gently laid his head on the floor.

Quickly trying to undo his shirt so he could see the damage, Sidious knew his chances were next to none. He had taken a hit directly in the chest at short range, and they didn't have time to get him to the Med Lab on the
Vultair.

“Sidious,” he heard Agnus say, and then reached to take the hand he was holding up to him. “You must finish this.”

“I will, Agnus. I promise.” He swallowed, trying to fight the tears he wanted desperately to let fall. Agnus dying would be like losing his own father.

Mikayla reached into her bra and pulled out the transporter Sidious had given her earlier. Sidious reached for her hand, but she quickly jerked it away. “Mikayla,” he snapped.

Placing it into Agnus's palm, she quickly closed his fingers around it after hitting the button in the middle. Within seconds, Agnus was transported to the
Vultair.

He stared at her, his eyes narrowed in anger. What the hell had she just done?

“Stop looking at me like you could throttle me and figure out a way to get us off this ship,” she said when she looked up and caught him staring at her.

He wanted to scream at her, for that transporter was supposed to get her off. But he also wanted to hug her for making that sacrifice for Agnus. As he looked at her, he realized that only made him love her more. They would make it off. Together.

“Come on,” he said as he stood and took her hand. “We don't have a lot of time.”

* * * * *

“We've got someone transporting aboard,” Kaycose said just a second before Agnus appeared on the floor in front of them.

“Holy hell!” Stefan yelled when he saw the chest wound. “Kaycose get me a med kit. Agnus, can you hear me?”

Agnus grunted in response, his eyes rolling back in his head. Once Stefan got a good look at the wound, he realized they didn't have time to move him, so he and Kaycose worked on him there on the floor of the bridge. Placing a sleep inducer on Agnus's forehead, Stefan then began to work as best as he could under the circumstances to repair the damage.

“Can you fix him?” Kaycose asked as he handed Stefan the instruments he asked for.

“I'm not sure, Kaycose. There's an awful lot of damage.” He was way out of his league, but he had to try. This man was like a father to him, and he knew Sidious felt the same way.

Anytime either one of them needed something, or just needed to vent about their father, this man was there. Agnus had pulled Stefan and Sidious out of more scraps than they cared to count. Now it looked like he was going to return the favor; he just hoped he could.

* * * * *

“Ahhh!” Mikayla yelled as a beam came down. The edge caught her shoulder, cutting deep into the flesh. She covered it with her hand, blood seeping through her fingers. She wasn't sure what hurt more, the deep gash or the burn as the hot metal singed her skin. Sidious grabbed her hand, moving it aside. “Let me see.” After a quick look, he glanced at her eyes, a worried frown on his brow. “It needs to be closed, but it will have to wait. Think you'll be okay?”

“Yeah, just get us out of here.”

Reaching down, he tore off a section of his jacket at the bottom and wrapped it around her arm. She winced but held still, letting him apply as much pressure as he could to stop the bleeding. “That should help. You ready?” Nodding her head, she turned to follow him. They could see the hangar entrance just a few feet away. The main power was out, so the doors wouldn't open on their own. “I've got to find something to wedge them open with,” he said as he began to look around.

Finally finding a long metal bar, he slipped it between the small gap and pushed.

Slowly, the doors began to open. Once there was a big enough gap, he pushed Mikayla through first and then he followed. The space was too small, and he had to push it wider to get his whole body through.

Once on the other side, he grinned. “I guess I need to lay off those pastries for a while, huh?”

She gaped at him in shock. “I can't believe you're trying to be funny at a time like this.”

Sidious smiled slightly at her and turned to head toward the
Triton
, which appeared at a distance to be all in one piece. Mikayla climbed inside and fastened her seat belt, trying not to think about the pain in her shoulder and various other parts of her body. She had taken numerous falls as the ship shook beneath her feet every time it was hit by rebel fire. She was sure there wouldn't be a spot on her body anywhere that didn't have a bruise on it.

“You holding up, baby?” he asked as he started the engines.

“As well as can be expected, I suppose,” she said with a slight smile. At the moment, she was just extremely relieved they had made it to his ship. Leaning her head back against the seat, she took a moment to close her eyes.

“We're not out of the woods yet,” he said as he piloted the ship off the deck and out into space. “We still have to make it through all this.” Mikayla opened her eyes to see what he was talking about and gasped. There had to be thousands of them. How in God's name would they get through this? Gripping the armrests of the seat, she sat quietly as Sidious zigzagged his way through the numerous fighters.

Several times it looked as though he were going to hit one head-on; then he would quickly change course at the last second. She tried to close her eyes, but then decided she didn't like that either. How does he tell the good guys from the bad guys? With growing trepidation, she watched him fly around, occasionally returning fire.

Suddenly the ship shook as they were hit with fire from behind, but since he had the shields up, there was no damage done. Turning the ship, he started flying directly toward the four-story communications tower of the
Shlictah
, an Imperial Flyer following close behind.

“Word must have gotten out about me,” he drawled. “It's my own men that are firing at us.”

“Sid, what are you doing?” she asked as they kept getting closer to the tower, her fingers gripping the armrest so tightly, her knuckles turned white.

“Trust me,” he said, never taking his eyes off it.