Chapter 5
Esther sat down in the copilot seat and became a bit uncomfortable in it. She fidgeted for a while and spoke the one thing she had on her mind, "You know that I'm all for sticking it to the Empire but I never stick my neck out this far. Who does that?"
"We do," Hera replied to the kid while readying to exit the ship from hyperspace.
Soon, the ghost was out of hyperspace and floating in space was an Imperial transport ship. "Imperial transport 651, this is Starbird," Hera said over the com making her voice distant and cold like all Imperials.
"We copy Starbird. What's you business," an Imperial agent sounded over the com.
"Bounty. We have captured an additional Wookie prisoner and have orders to place him with you," Hera said in a monotone voice as if she was bored with her job already or exhausted by it.
"We have no such orders," the Imperial agent replied and two tie fighters detached from the ship and started to fly over to the ghost from behind them to blast them away.
"That's fine. We already got paid. By Governor Tarkin. If you don't want the oversize Mona, then I'll jettison outta here. Let you explain to your superiors why the Empire has one less slave," Hera replied to the agent with a shrug in her voice to let them know that they are dealing with an agent already paid by the Government of the Outer Rim.
"Permission to dock. Bay 1," the agent said and shut off the com to probably order the guards to get the prize.
Hera smiled at Esther while Esther smiled back under her mask and gave a nod of respect to Hera. "It took me nearly five years to perfect an agent's Imperial accent. You made it look easy," Esther said to Hera when she raised a questioning eyebrow.
Hera just shook her head and smiled again at the kid and docked the ship next to the Imperial transport ship. They had to wait a while until the chief's voice came over the com saying "No troopers on this floor and security's...."
Suddenly there was too much static to overhear making Esther look to Hera with wide eyes. Hera quietly signaled for the girl to remain calm and pressed the buttons to turn on the com saying "Spector 1 come in. Spector 4. Spector 5."
After nothing Hera tried again and said "Agh, com's down. No not downed. Jammed."
As Hera said those last words, Esther felt something and said to Hera, "Something's coming."
The both of them looked out the front window to see a ship, three times larger than the two ships combined, jump out of hyperspace. "That's an Imperial Star Destroyer!" Hera stated in an alarmed tone.
"This whole thing was a setup," Esther said to Hera who said, in a much calmer tone, "It's beginning to look that way."
The two ships began to go forward towards the Star Destroyer and were getting closer and closer each second. "You need to go board that ship and warm them kid," Hera said to Esther.
"What? What about you? Why can't you go?" Esther asked Hera in a bewildered tone because, knowing the crew, they would never trust her as far as a blaster would go to its target.
"I need to be here to be ready to take off or else none of us stand a chance against escaping," Hera explained.
"But I can't, I'm not meant to be trustworthy to anyone. Your crew won't trust me as far as a bullet would hit me," Esther said to her in a protesting manner before continuing, "Why should I trust and rescue strangers when I was treated with distrust the moment I arrived?"
"Because Kanan risked his life for yours despite you being a stranger to him," Hera pointed out before continuing, "If all you do is fight for your life then your life is worth nothing. They need you kid. They need you right now."
Esther blinked away a tear and looked up defiantly at the Star Destroyer before making up her mind. "Why not say that I got to mess up the Empire's plans twice in one day?" she asked with smugness masked on her face before continuing, "I'll go and help. But be ready to take off no matter what happens."
Hera nodded her head in confirmation and smiled as the kid got up quickly and ran out of the room to warn the crew of the trap. She turned to see them caught in the Star Destroyer and hoped that the kid warned her family on time. Esther kept running through the ship and finally came to where she saw them about to open the door. Quickly, she pulled out her blaster and blasted the keypad from a few feet away. Kanan and Zeb got ready to fire at her when they stopped and stared at her in shock. "Quickly, we have to move. Now! It's a trap! There aren't any Wookies on this ship! Hera sent me to warn you all and if we don't get out of here then we are all gonna be tortured by the Imperials for information and locked away forever!" Esther yelled out to them.
"Oh, please. The kid's obviously trying to blow this OP," Zeb growled out.
"Why if she was, she would've just stayed inside the ship and took out your pilot," a voice sounded from behind the two of them.
Esther walked forward until she stood between Zeb and Kanan, to find the source of that voice and stopped cold. "You!" she snarled our startling the two on either side of her.
"Why yes. It is me Bridger. Such a lovely way for me to collect my bounty on you by siding with the Empire's plan," said Jelscope mockingly.
"You're gonna be waiting a while longer for that traitor!" Esther snarled out before taking out her blaster and blasting at Jelscope's gun, temporarily disarming him for the moment.
"Come on! Run!" Esther urged them before running back the way she came with Kanan and Zeb not far behind her.
"Enemy of yours?" Zeb asked.
"A traitor to my family most likely but yea, an enemy and the com's also down. So even if we can warn Sabale and Chopper, we'd be too late," Esther replied and informed them if the situation.
"They'll follow through with the plan," assured Kanan.
"Right, cause the plan's going great," Esther said sarcastically as they continued on forward.
"Don't stop," Kanan ordered as they saw agent Kallus heading their way with some stormtroopers to block them off from their escape route.
"Push off. Now!" Kanan ordered once more as the gravity began to turn itself off.
Esther caught onto the plan and jumped into the air just as she felt the gravity shut off. She heard some shots go off and dodged one from behind her. Looking behind her, she saw Jelscope holding a gun forward and about to blast her again to kill her or possibly knock her unconscious when she fired a shot at him in the shoulder, knocking him unconscious. She quickly grabbed onto the ceiling bars for the vents and climbed her way forward till she was next to them. "You doing okay kid?" Kanan asked as they kept going forward.
"Are you kidding? This is the most fun I've had in a while," Esther exclaimed while thinking What kind of a question is that?
Soon, gravity took hold of her and she fell onto the floor on her hands and knees. Quickly, Esther followed behind Zeb and they came to their destination where Sabale and Chopper had just arrived. "Where are the Wookies?" Sabale asked from inside his helmet.
"No Wookies. Sabale, man the nose gun. Chop, tell Hera to take off," Kanan said to the two if them.
Sabale nodded his head in reply, but a bit unsure of what was going on, and quickly left to do his chief's bidding with Chopper not far behind him. Kanan headed inside with Zeb not far behind him. Esther was about to follow them inside when she was grabbed. She let a shriek of suprise and grabbed the arm of her would-be captor. Twisting it painfully, Esther kicked Jelscope in the stomach and yelled out to Zeb, "Go!! I can handle myself! Hurry!"
"You did good kid," Zeb said regretfully as the door shut on him holding his gun in the air ready to shoot whoever that was and sighed.
Meanwhile Esther saw that she would soon be outnumbered and quickly made her way into the air vents before taking off her headband and disappearing in the air vents without a trace to be seen of her.
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