The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano, Book Ten

Chapter Thirty-Six: Mounting A Rescue

AHSOKA TANO

As she left the safety of the New Hope behind, Ahsoka found herself floating in empty space for a moment. Her stomach lurched from the sudden lack of gravity, and she forced her air intake into conformity, breathing as deeply as she dared without wasting oxygen.

A moment later, Ezra pushed her towards the opening in the misshapen mass of durasteel with the Force. Taking care to avoid the fuel cells that were growing ever closer to the point of exploding, she pulled herself through, moving with her momentum and not against it to go further with less energy.

Finding her way through the pieces of broken machinery was like trying to find her way through a maze. For every open passage there were at least three dead ends, and even with Janira's presence to guide her, that didn't stop her from taking a few of them before realizing they led nowhere.

Nearly five minutes – at least two of which had been wasted on wrong turns – had elapsed by the time she found Janira.

Her tall form was draped over one of the fuel cells, one leg on an odd angle and a few unnatural points sticking up from her torso where ribs must have broken through the skin. Her suit was spattered here and there with crimson, and tiny rivulets of blood swam in the vacuum around her. They were a dark testament to the sheer amount of blood she must have lost.

Thankfully, her suit had mended itself around the tears, preventing the vacuum from taking its toll on her exposed flesh.

But that was when Ahsoka realized that the long, thin nozzle from one of the fuel cells had gone straight through Jani's shoulder. The fibers of her suit had mended themselves around it, and not only would any attempt to remove it risk opening the wound to the vacuum of space, but there was no way to remove it without breaking the seal on the container and permitting the deadly gas to escape.

And as Ahsoka drew closer, she realized that the situation was even worse than that.

The reader on the side of Janira's oxygen filter read that the composition of the container was over fifty percent carbon dioxide. She must have been breathing that, and not the pure oxygen she needed, for almost an hour now, and had been unconscious for far longer than that.

Ahsoka had to act fast.

Without hesitation, she traded the fuller of her two oxygen tanks for the one Janira was wearing. Then, sending a silent message through the Force warning Ezra to get ready, she ignited her lightsaber and cut straight through the tube.

Once Janira was free, Ahsoka wrapped an arm around her waist and used the other to pull herself back towards the ship, going as quickly as she possibly could without hitting anything. Now that the gas was free, she had mere minutes.

Despite the fact that it was faster going now that she knew which path to take through the wreckage, spots were beginning to dance in front of her eyes. Ahsoka did her best to blink them away and pushed on. She knew the ship was just around the next bend.

Only, it wasn't. At the worst possible time, she had taken a wrong turn.

Now almost delirious from the lack of oxygen, Ahsoka strained against her body's increasingly more painful urge to breathe in deeply, and tried to get her bearings. But it was to no avail – the fragments of metal and wires were beginning to blur together, making anything she could have used to find her way unrecognizable.

She just wanted to close her eyes, and...

No, she told herself. NO. I will not break a promise to Lux.

Summoning what little energy she still had, she pushed herself down the passageway she sensed through the Force was the right way to go. As soon as she was clear of the debris, Ezra latched onto her and pulled her back towards the ship.