Obi Wan and the Duchess

Chapter Three: Pit Stop

"Obi Wan," Satine cooed, her voice had sounded distant to the jedi as he drifted out of sleep. He opened his eyes to a blurred image of the duchess that was standing over him. White spots sparkled on the inside of his eyelids as the remnants of sleep were rubbed away by his knuckles. When Kenobi blinked the world around him was clearer, the Duchess knelt on the side of his bed with a look of concern on her lips.

"What is it?" The jedi said, sitting up to stretch watching out of the corner of his eye as she rose to her feet.

"It's the engines, something's wrong with them. I tried to fix it but..." The duchess trailed off, her fingers grazing the fabric covering her left forearm. Kenobi sensed some pain through the force that came from the Duchess and her mind that dwelled on it.

"What's wrong with the engines, and your arm." Kenobi reached out to her, she placed it gently in his open hand.

"It started to make a weird noise and something smelled as if it was burning." The duchess winced as Kenobi's finger brushed over it. He seemed to frown.

"That's not it," she paused to take a breath, "the hyperdrive is starting to fail, it's got approximately seven hours left."

"Let's see what medical supplies this ship has before we begin worrying about the hyperdrive, Duchess. I'm supposed to be keeping you safe remember." Kenobi said with a smile and lead the two of them out of the tight quarters to the secondary hold where a medical station had been set up in previous renovations. The back wall was lined with shelves that held gauzes and bandages, painkillers, healing serums and ointments. The duchess sat down on the slide out bench as he went straight to the back, grabbing a small bottle and some bandages before kneeling down in front of her.

"This might burn a little bit." Kenobi warned the woman with a smile. He pressed a antibacterial towelette to the burn, the duchess gasped in pain and her fingers curled into a fist.

"Master Jedi, I think your definition of a 'little bit' is distorted." She had joked, her voice filled with momentary pain. He looked up to her and gave her a sorry smile while he finished cleaning the wound and began to wrap it.

"Thank you Obi Wan." the Duchess whispered as the jedi stood up and put the supplies back. He turned back towards the duchess who was pulling down her sleeve when the floor rocked sharply, the two of them fell to their knees. Kenobi , after regaining balance, launched himself up and bolted to the cockpit. His eyes scanned the control board; lights were flashing, a spark flew here and there, a low alarm was blaring but he had heard that throughout the ship. He took a step forward only to be met with another rocking, the hyperdrive flashed a warning as the blue light faltered. Satine had rushed in and stood breathless next to him, her hand gripping around his forearm. They looked at each other and the ship fell out of hyperspace. The two of them gripped onto the chairs, Kenobi pulled himself into the pilot's chair and gripped the handles and started pressing buttons. The ship was still lurching forwards to the planet below, Satine threw herself into the chair and began to help.

"It's Nal Hutta below!" The duchess exclaimed.

"How could we have gotten so far off course?" Kenobi answered distressed.

"It's the navicomputer, it had some kind of malfunction with the hyperdrive." She responded quickly, pressing the cooling button on the hyperdrive.

"We need to fix it, both of them," he paused glancing over at her. "We're going to have to land."

"We can't possibly land there." The duchess said in denial, and slightly terrified.

"We have no choice, duchess, we can't go much farther without fuel and a working hyperdrive system." She sat quietly and then nodded and started to run a scan over the planet.

"In that case, land towards the southern hemisphere. That's where the planet is most populated, we should be able to find what we need in those parts." Satine stated and began to prepare the landing cycle as they entered the atmosphere.

"We're entering the atmosphere pretty quickly." He warned, more to himself than to her.

"Strap in, duchess." Kenobi ordered.

"What about you?" She asked, pulling the nylon strap across her body.

"I'll be fine. Enhance the stabilizers and cut the engine." He called, pulling up hard on the handles as the age old ship started slow through the thick clouds. The surface started to near.

"Engines on in three, two, now!" Satine did as the jedi instructed, the ship shot up against gravity. It's thrusters lowered the ship down onto the paved ground near all the action. The two of them stood up slowly and walked through the door to their quarters, the lights in the ship flickered on and off continuously. When they got into the room they began to get ready to leave. Satine pulled a faded burgundy cape around her shoulders and fastened it at the left shoulder, the cape fell down to her upper thighs. After moving the fabric of the hood around, she lifted the elongated neck of her long sleeved shirt up out of her tunic, it laid like a scarf around the bottom of her neck. Kenobi replaced his jedi tunic for a thicker grey long sleeve that went under his chin and a black jacket that sat at his waist. He had tucked his shirt into his dark, forest green pants and strapped a holster to his thigh and slipped a blaster pistol in it. Satine turned around to the jedi who was zipping up black combat boots and laughed quietly while she slipped on her knee high brown boots.

"What is it, Satine?" The jedi said jokingly and smiled at her.

"You look nothing like a jedi." She said, another laugh escaping from her throat.

"And you look nothing like royalty, your highness." Kenobi had laughed and pocketed his sabers.

"Let's just hope that no one notices who we are until we've left." She said as they walked out and neared the platform.

"These are outlaws, Satine, they don't care who we are even if they recognize us." Kenobi said surely while putting leather gloves on.

"You forget that there are some type of bounty on our head from the separatists, especially you, Obi Wan." She reminded him with a smile that soon disappeared behind the cloth collar that covered a large part of her face. Her loose, blonde hair swayed under the hood of the cloak that she pulled up. Kenobi seemed to gaze in awe at the duchess's blue eyes that had a different, more mysterious, glow to them. He lifted his hand and waved his fingers, through the force the door opened to the green-yellow atmosphere of Nal Hutta. The two stepped down off the ramp onto the cold pavement. They glanced at each other before taking another step.