“Bold,”remarked Kylo Ren.
I heard the lander door open. Through my blurry vision I watched someone stumble out.
The warlord took something from his belt. His own lightsaber. He activated it. The blade was as red as blood, a shorter blade on either side hissing, seething. I felt the heat burning my skin. He held it so close to my neck, I began to blister. I smelled my hair singeing.
He was going to kill me. There was no reason for him not to—
“Stop. Let her go,” said Sian, stumbling toward us. The troopers raised their blasters at him, but the warlord motioned for them to stand down. “I have it—I have it here. Just let her go.”
“You are bartering with me?”This Kylo Ren sounded angry now.
Sian took the saber out of his pocket. He held it up. “I’m pleading—”
The lightsaber was snatched from Sian’s hand like it was on an invisible string. It flew into the warlord’s grip. His shoulders hitched up in elation—
A moment passed in silence.
And then he yelled in anger—loud, frustrated, raw. He crushed the hilt in his hand like it was made of tin.
“This isn’t the one!”he roared.
The pieces of the saber clattered to the ground, the strange yellow crystal inside cracked in two.
He turned his attention back to me, raising his red saber. Sian shouted. My family pleaded. I squeezed my eyes closed, until suddenly, I heard a familiar sound.
I knew that sound. I knew it well. It was the sound of a ship approaching in the atmosphere. The sky filled with the scream of ships. I glanced up. Three sleek, elegant fighters with chrome finishes soared toward us, firing bolts at the stormtroopers. The men scattered like herd creatures.
Kylo Ren deflected a blast. It careened into the research facility, where it met the fuel there and exploded, knocking everyone off their feet.
Everyone except him.
“Kill them,”the warlord spat as he spun on his heel and returned to the shuttle.“You’ve wasted enough of my time.”
When Val tried to follow, the general aimed his blaster at him. “No,youstay here with your mess.”
My brother gave a start, his eyes wide. “But Ifoundthe lightsaber for you!”
“I’m glad you understand,” the redhead spat, and turned his blaster on me.
Sian positioned himself between me and the general. Though I couldn’t see what was happening, I imagined that the general had looked into Sian’s eyes.
General Hux snarled, “ALucem?”
“In the flesh,” Sian replied, opening his arms wide with a mock bow. “I wonder, what do your dull eyes see?”
Then General Hux vomited. Two of his men grabbed him and ushered him quickly away toward the shuttle. Halfway there, he recovered enough to snarl into his communicator in a hoarse, cracked voice, “Fire on the ship when we’ve evacuated!”
The three fighter ships were coming back for a second round. They fired on the command shuttle, distracting the bigger ship in the sky, too.
For a moment, the planet was quiet.
For a moment, I sat on the ground, clutching my neck,gasping for breath, Sian picking up the shattered pieces of the saber, while Telly and Maz stole out of the ship to undo the cuffs on the other crew members.
For a moment, everything stilled as my father slowly got to his feet.
For a moment, we were alive.
But not for long.
