Spreading the Light

Chapter 2

I shifted uncomfortably as I came awake. I knew I had dozed off but I didn't think I had been asleep long.

Rapid footsteps approached.

"There you are. Han was wondering where you were." The woman's voice had come from close by. The response came in a voice I hadn't heard before. I wondered if it belonged to the light-haired man I had seen.

"I just wanted to check something." The voice was directly above me.

"On the floor?"

I quickly covered my mouth before I could make any noise.

"I thought I felt something when I passed here earlier."

"You felt something." The woman sounded skeptical.

"Come here." There were a few more footsteps, stopping right above me. "Now relax. Close your eyes and focus on your surroundings. Can you feel me?" There was a pause. "Can you feel Han and Chewie?"

"Y -- yes. Further away. Han's moving from the cockpit to another part of the ship," the woman said hesitantly.

"Good. Now, can you feel something else?" the man asked.

"Like what?"

"Another presence. An unfamiliar presence."

There was silence for nearly a minute during which I was almost afraid to breathe.

"There is something but I can't tell what it is. It's close though. It feels like it's . . . It can't be under us, can it?"

This time I was unable to stop the gasp that escaped my lips.

"Well, Han does have those smuggling compartments right here."

"Who would know about them?" the woman asked.

"Why don't we find out?"

Light flooded the space as the section of floor was lifted from above me. I found myself staring up at the face of the light-haired man and the shocked face of the young woman. The man was still dressed in dark clothes but the woman had changed into brown boots, light blue pants, and a camouflage poncho. The man extended his hands towards me. One was covered with a black glove.

"Come on, let's get you out of there," he said kindly.

I let the man pull me out of the compartment.

"How did you get in there?" he asked.

"I -- I snuck on board while your wookie was loading the ship," I stammered. "You're not going to send me back to that forest covered rock, are you?"

"No, of course not," the man laughed.

"Han might want to," the man said, an amused expression on her face. She looked familiar. "We'd better tell him we've got company."

"Right."

"Excuse me. I -- uh -- I heard you talking to the other man last night," I said, gesturing to the woman who raised her eyebrows, "and I just want to know two things: are you really from the rebellion and is the empire really gone?"

The woman smiled softly. "Yes and we hope so. Now, let's go. Come this way."

Pulling the straps of my bag over my shoulders, I followed the woman out of the corridor. We came into an open room. The protocol droid I had seen the night before was sitting on a bench that curved around a round Dejarik table. The astromech stood beside it.

The dark-haired man came through a door on the opposite side of the room.

"Thanks to Lando, our sensors aren't working, but otherwise the ship's fine. It's probably not a good idea to fly the ship a long way until we get that fixed." He stopped abruptly when he saw me. "Who's this?"