Chapter XLI
"In the face of adversity, we must act with motive and purpose." - Zhad'vida, from Collected Wisdom of the Jedi Masters
Frank immediately pulled out his blaster, and to his surprise, Gerard did the same. They quickly glanced at each other, and in an instant, they both charged toward Dali and her gang. Frank was sure he could take care of the bounty hunter - after all, he'd beaten her in a fight before. He could do it again.
Dali shot first, her blaster bolt sailing right past Gerard's head. As soon as she fired, Frank ran in front of Gerard and shot two of Dali's fellow bounty hunters, and he was about to take down a third when Dali turned toward Frank and pointed her blaster at his head.
"Is that your little boyfriend, Fun Ghoul?" she said as she pointed her other blaster toward Gerard. "No wonder you were so protective of him last time we met."
"None of your business," Frank said as he aimed his blaster in Dali's direction. He fired, but he missed, his blaster bolt striking one of Dali's associates in the chest. He was about to pull the trigger again when even more bounty hunters rushed into the ship. They ran in far faster than Frank could shoot them, and even as he fired again and again, they kept on coming closer. Soon, Frank and Gerard were surrounded.
Of course, they weren't going down without a fight.
They were back to back, with Frank mowing down their enemies while Gerard carefully aimed and fired his blaster. As the bounty hunters tried to shoot them down, Frank was quick and aggressive, constantly defending Gerard and gunning down the bounty hunters at the same time. Neither of them had taken out Dali yet, but it felt like it was only a matter of time. Slowly but surely, they turned the tides of the battle, and every shot felt like another step closer to victory.
Between the two of them, they managed to kill about half of Dali's mercenaries, but it wasn't enough. There were still far too many bounty hunters rushing toward them, armed with massive blaster rifles. Frank was scared that he wouldn't be able to get them all, but he was even more scared that one of them might kill Gerard. He wanted this all to be over, but it was far too late to negotiate now. It was a fight to the death.
Dali took a step closer, and Frank seized the opportunity. He pointed his blaster at her, and he was about to squeeze the trigger, but Dali was too fast. Before Frank could do anything, she shot him in the leg, and he immediately fell onto the ground, completely defenseless.
"FRANK!" Gerard shouted as he rushed over to his boyfriend. As Frank screamed, blood gushing out of his injured leg, Gerard panicked. He couldn't lose Frank, not like this. He was the only hope for him, and now, he was on the floor of the Black Mariah, wincing in pain as the bounty hunters closed in.
Dali was within point-blank range as she went in for the kill. As she aimed her blaster directly at Frank's head, Gerard knew what he had to do. He reached backward for his sketchbook, grabbed it, and slammed it over Dali's head.
As it turned out, it was just enough of a distraction to buy Frank more time. He reached for his blaster and shot Dali in the head, and as she fell onto the ground next to Frank, the other bounty hunters began to retreat. At last, the two of them had won.
"Are you okay?" Gerard asked Frank as soon as the bounty hunters were gone.
"Of course not. It...it hurts a lot."
Gerard quickly kissed him and then said, "Stay strong for me, okay Frank? You can make it through this."
Gerard left the room and came back with some gauze, which he carefully wrapped around Frank's leg to stop the bleeding. "I'm sure the med droids will give you something better once we get back to civilization, but it will do for now," he said.
"Thanks, Gee."
"You're welcome. We should probably head back to Tatooine though. It's still the backwoods of the galaxy, but they at least have a hospital there..."
"No way," Frank said.
"Frank, I'm serious. You need to get that treated."
"Not before we find a new base."
"That's not important right now."
"Yes, it is! It's the whole reason the Rebellion sent us out here!"
"What if your leg gets infected or something?"
"I don't care. We still can't go back to Tatooine until we've found a planet where the Truwel Rebellion can safely operate."
Gerard sighed and said, "I admire your determination, Frank, even if it is going to kill you one of these days. Can you even fly the ship right now?"
Frank tried to stand up, but he was only able to move his leg slightly before the pain became too much to bear. "No," he said, wincing. "But I could teach you."
Gerard walked over to the controls and sat down in the captain's chair, but he had no clue what to do. There were so many knobs, levers, and buttons, and he had no clue what any of them. He glanced out the window for a second and then turned back to Frank.
"Uhh...Frankie?" Gerard said. "There's a bit of a problem."
"What?" Frank said.
"We're still surrounded by enemy ships."
Frank looked out the window as well, and he saw exactly what Gerard meant. The bounty hunters were still everywhere - there was no way to get past them. "The controls for the laser cannons are on the left side of the panel," he explained to Gerard, who immediately reached to the right. "Your other left!" Frank exclaimed.
"Sorry," Gerard said sheepishly. "So what do I do?"
"Use the lever to aim, and the button to fire."
"But there's two levers..."
"One's for the left side of the ship, and the other's for the right side."
"This is so confusing," Gerard said as he fired, the ship's blaster bolt sailing right between two ships. "How do you keep it all straight?"
"Practice, mostly," Frank said. "Then again, the TIE fighter controls are actually pretty intuitive. You should try flying a Nebulon-B. Those things are impossible."
"Frank, they're firing at me!" Gerard exclaimed. "What do I do?"
"We already have all of our shields activated. Your best bet at this point is to fly away."
"And how do I do that?"
"At the center of the panel, there's a lever to steer and a knob to control your speed. Use those."
Gerard grabbed onto a lever, but Frank immediately shouted, "No! Not that one! The other one!"
"You've got to be a little more specific, Frank," Gerard said as he grabbed onto the correct lever and steered the ship upwards. Then, he suddenly sped up the ship and swerved toward a nearby planet.
"Hey, maybe that planet's habitable," Frank said as he looked out the window.
"I doubt it," Gerard said. "It's too far away from the star it's orbiting."
Gerard kept on piloting the Black Mariah, and for his first time flying a ship, Frank thought he was doing a pretty good job. The bounty hunters were still chasing after them, firing their laser cannons in their direction, but at full speed, the Black Mariah could outrun them. They were sure they could win.
"Hey, there's another planet over there," Frank said. "You should add it to your map."
Gerard pulled out his sketchbook, tore out a page, and started drawing, but all of a sudden, a light started blinking on the dashboard. "What does that mean?" he asked.
"We're running low on hypermatter," Frank said. "If we run out, we won't be able to make it back to Tatooine, but we should be okay for at least another few days. You can click the button next to the speed knob to turn it off."
Gerard clicked a button, and Frank shouted, "No! We're doomed!"
"What did I do?"
"You just turned off all of our shields!"
"Sorry about that. How do I turn them back on again?"
Frank was about to say something, but it was too late. One of the bounty hunters' ships shot the Black Mariah, sending it spinning toward the planet they'd just passed.
"Come on, Gerard," Frank said. "Stay in control."
Gerard did his best, but in the end, there was nothing he could do. They were going to crash, no matter how hard he tried to maintain control of the ship. Frank was right. They were doomed.
As the Black Mariah fell out of the sky, Gerard held onto Frank, hoping that they would at least survive the impact. They were far too young to die, but he knew that wouldn't change anything. The galaxy was a wicked place. All the time, good guys died, and bad guys won.
Gerard held Frank tighter, desperately hoping that somehow, that wouldn't happen to them.
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