Star Wars - The Bodyguard

Chapter 4

Coruscant: Level 1313 - 5 Days After Attack

She struggled to wake up. It was as if she were fighting her way through a thick fog. She had to try hard to even get her eyes to open. When she did, everything was blurry. All she could make out was color, a lot of it.

Her ears weren't working right either. Everything sounded muffled, as if it were coming from a great distance away. There was a great deal of it, she could tell, but she couldn't make it out.

Her vision cleared and she raised her head to look around.

The color came from the flashing, pulsating sign at the end of the alley she was in.

That wasn't right. Last she had remembered she had been on a shuttle back to her home-world. What had happened?

"You're awake."

Jethro's voice came loud and clear as her hearing returned to normal as well. Then it all came back to her. They had crashed. She didn't remember anything after that.

"Can you walk?"

She forced herself into a sitting position.

"I think so."

Jethro helped her to her feet, steadying her when she almost toppled again. She felt him put his arm around her and under her armpit.

"Come on."

Jethro led her further into the alley and out behind the building.

The atmosphere changed almost immediately. The flashing lights were left behind them, along with the noise. There was almost no one behind the business. Just a drunk sleeping it off.

"What happened?"

"We crashed." Jethro was as curt as ever with her.

"What happened afterward?"

"You were knocked unconscious in the crash. I carried you out."

"Why didn't you wait for Republic security?"

"Whoever caused the crash was going to show up to confirm the kill. We had to get out first."

They continued in silence.

The streets were filthy. The people that walked them matched. 

Some watched them. Others ignored them entirely and went on with their lives, trudging to and from work. Some sat on the sidewalks in a drunken stupor. Some were high on death sticks or spice, sometimes both. More than a few looked ready to murder them and take what they had.

"Where are we going?"

"We need to find somewhere to lay low."

Jethro stopped in front of an old man. He was sitting against the side of a building wrapped in a hooded cloak. A death stick hung from his mouth.

Jethro removed several credits from somewhere in his robes and placed them on the old man's lap. He then pulled the cloak off, giving it to the senator. The old man never stirred.

The senator wrinkled her nose at the offered cloak.

"What's this for?"

"We need to hide our faces. Put it on."

She tentatively pulled the cloak over her head and pulled the hood up.

"You don't look half bad." Jethro forced a joke.

"It smells."

"You'll get used to it."

And with that, the playful tone in his voice was gone. For just a moment she had seen him let down a guard she hadn't even known he had. Then it was back.

"What about you?"

"I'll find something."

The two continued down the dirty street until they reached an apartment complex.

Entering the lobby, they were greeted by an awful stench.

The senator covered her nose.

"What is that?"

"Him, probably."

Jethro pointed to a rather overweight creature with matted fur. The color and stench indicated he hadn't washed any time recently.

He was slumbering behind the check-in counter and the two let themselves past without waking him.

Up a flight of stairs and down a dirty hallway, they found an equally dirty, unoccupied room.

Jethro let them in with a wave of his hand.

Coruscant: Level 1313 - 5 days after Attack

The bounty hunter loaded his rifle and locked the action into place with a furious slamming of his palm against it.

Once again, thanks to the help of that Jedi, the Senator had survived. To make matters worse, when his employer found out, he called open season on them. Now every bounty hunter on the planet was after his targets.

He stormed out of his apartment and to his speeder waiting outside.

He still had a chance. If he could catch them as they tried to return to the surface. There was only one way out in that district, and he would be waiting for them.