Star Wars: A New Change

Chapter 33.

"Do you have any idea where we're going?" I asked Anakin as we ran.

"Uh, North?" Anakin answered as he held onto my hand tightly.

I rolled my eyes but tried to keep up. It was hard to run in these giant robes.

"I really wish I had my lightsaber right now." Anakin whined as we came upon some battle droids.

He used the force to knock them down and I quickly grabbed a couple blasters.

"Weapons?" I asked as I handed one to Anakin. He looked appalled to be using a blaster instead of his usual weapon but eventually relented and took it.

I had rarely ever used a blaster. Mandro would sometimes take me practicing, but I never had to actually use one because my life depended on it.

My heart ached as I thought about Mandro. Would I make it out alive? Would I ever see him, or any of my other friends again? I was certainly going to try.

As if sensing what I was thinking, Anakin squeezed my hand in assurance.

"We'll get out of here. We'll make it back home."

I nodded but said nothing. I was thankful for his confidence. I could almost believe what he said was true, even though it didn't seem likely. We were probably going to die here. We couldn't even find the stupid hangar.

As we hurried through the maze, the battle droids were becoming more and more frequent. That gave me hope somehow. I figured that the droids would be around the ships because the geonosians would stay in their hive.

Finally we came to an open clearing and my heart leapt when I saw ships. We had made it!

My joy was short-lived though as we started getting shot at by blasters.

Anakin and I did our best to fight them off, but there were so many and they just kept coming.

"We're not going to be able to fight them all. We need to get into a ship fast." Anakin told me, blocking my body with his so that there was no chance of me getting shot. He was so considerate.

"Which ship?" I asked ducking around him and shooting a couple of droids.

Anakin nodded in the direction of a standard geonosian ship.

"That one will do." Anakin said. "On three, run to the shop as fast as possible."

"One, two, three!" Anakin yelled and forced all of the battle droids back as I ran and climbed into the ship. Anakin followed quickly and shut the door.

"We need to get out of here quickly." Anakin told me as if I didn't already know that.

Without wasting time Anakin figured out the controls of the ship and started to fly the ship out.

As we were leaving I saw Count Dooku come out and watch us. He ordered something from some battle droids and they ran off.

I was hoping that we might actually be out of danger, but then the hangar doors started closing.

"Anakin, we're not going to make it." I said worriedly.

"Yes we will." he said determinedly.

I sat down nervously. My stomach felt sick with fear again.

"It's gonna be tight but we'll make it! Anakin promised as we sped trying to beat the shields.

I held my breath as we passed through just in the nick of time. Anakin whooped for joy as we sailed through the open air.

"Anakin, we're not out of trouble yet! There are two on our tail!" I pointed out at the other ships that were following us.

They shot at us and Anakin and I were jostled around as it hit us.

Anakin looked annoyed but immediately got to work on getting rid of them.

We did all sorts of tricks that made me feel nauseous as we spun around and did loop-de-loops.

"I haven't figured out these controls yet. I don't know how to fire at them." Anakin explained as he dodged some more lazer blasts headed in our direction.

He fumbled with some of the controls and finally smiled. "Got it." he said triumphantly.

He quickly dropped the ship and before the two behind us could figure out what happened, Anakin rose back up behind them and started firing.

One down and one to go.

The other ship was harder to hit. It was dodging every shot.

I could tell Anakin was getting frustrated. His jaw was clenched and his fingers tight on the steering.

"Anakin we need to go before he calls for reinforcements!" I tried telling the Jedi.

He looked angry that he couldn't get the last guy, but finally nodded and headed towards space quickly.

"He's going to fire on us." Anakin snapped angrily.

"Just get us out of here!" I told him urgently.

We sped towards space as fast as we could. Just as Anakin had predicted, the ship was following us.

"I need to figure out how to set the coordinates for hyperspeed. It's really hard for me to try to dodge, fly straight and set the coordinates, all while you're yelling at me!" Anakin said in between gritted teeth.

"What can I do to help?" I offered. I wasn't trying to be annoying.

"Can you take the steering for a second while I figure this out? Try not to let him hit us. Our shields aren't very strong on this thing." Anakin said passing over the steering.

I took it determinedly. I was going to trying my best, even though I was not even close to being as good as Anakin.

"I'll help, just do as I say." Anakin said placing one of his hands over mine and squeezing it affectionately.

I nodded and tried to stop my shakiness. If I ever got back home, I was definitely going to be investing in some more pilot and fighting practice.

"Move left." Anakin instructed and I obeyed immediately. I saw a large blaster fire just barely miss us to the right.

"Go down." Anakin said and again I followed his direction.

We kept going like this for a couple of minutes while he set up the hyperdrive.

"We're not going to be able to make it to Coruscant, but Naboo is close enough. I'm sure we can get help there." Anakin told me as he set the coordinates.

He took back the steering, which I was really grateful for and prepared to jump into hyperspeed.

Before we went into hyperspace the ship behind us got a lucky shot and hit us hard.

"Not good." Anakin said right before everything sped up and we were moving through hyperspace.