Chapter 4
“The Force is all around speaking to use, urging us to seize it and use it to destroy our foes. It is unstoppable energy consumes you and the more you use it the more you want it. It sings to me and I sing back to it a sweet song of destruction. I have crushed all that opposed me and soon I will crush you.” The words of Gethezerion rang in my head as I lay strapped to a medical table with tubes sprouting out of my head and chest. Surrounded by medical technicians and beeping monitors I wondered how long it would be till Gethezerion’s prediction came true. I’d forgotten how long I had been on this cursed planet. I did everything from this table, I slept, I ate, I relieved myself, and I underwent tests. According to the pieces of conversations that I had heard it seems that I have some connection to the force and the doctors think that that connection maybe the cause of my rejection of Dr. Gast’s conditioning program. With that as a working hypothesis these doctors have set about poking and prodding me to find away around it. I’ve begun the taking the enhancement drugs again and several different versions of the conditioning drugs, that Gethezerion has “seasoned” with the force that are supposed to break down the barriers in my mind. So it seems like a year maybe two that I have been strapped to this bed staring into a white ceiling with only Gethezerion’s prediction to look forward to.
“I think he’s waking up. Rise and shine you animal.” It can’t be Chid’s shift again. Most of the doctors and their assistant see me as only a test subject and don’t bother to talk to me. Chid however takes every chance he can get to left me know he is better than me because he isn’t strapped to a table. “Oh, my god I think you stink worse today than you did yesterday. Now wake up!” Chid screams as he punches me in the side.
“Ugh, One of these days I’m going to kill you,” I gasp between clenched teeth.
“The only things you’re going to do are lie there and wait to die. When it’s time to get rid of you I’ll be the first in line for the job. Until you better keep your mouth shut if you know what’s good for you. If you’re wondering it’s not my shift I just got turned down again for a request to be transferred back to my home planet. You know what I think it’s you fault that I got turned down. According to the message I received, ‘The work you are performing with the test subject is of highest priority and we can not move you from that project until a solution is discovered.’ So you see it because of huge stinking THINGS like you that I’m still stuck here changing you diapers. ” He just keeps pushing me and pushing me to the limit, one of these I’m just going to snap and then I’ll kill him before they can shoot me. I can feel my rage forming into a hard ball in my head and as I focus my rage at Chid, thinking of how I want him to die something strange happens. “Oh, god what’s happening, what’s going on!” Chid’s screams wash over me as I watch him slowly rise off the floor and I think yeah this is how it happens in my dreams, I pick Chid up and squeeze him till his bones break and he dies. All of the sudden Chid’s body convulses as if a giant hand has closed around and squeezed. I can hear the snap of bone and his limp body falls back to floor in a heap in the corner of the room, just like my dream. Then with a loud roar I begin to strain against my bonds. I think of all the pain and anguish these metal bands have put me through focus all my hate and anger and even a little fear at my bonds, with an angry yell my right arm rips free, then my left, now my legs are free. I stand up wondering if this is for real, I dreamed this moment for so long but know it is finally here. I wonder how long until the guards outside the door come rushing in, well better to embrace death that run from it. I have to spend precious seconds removing the door panel and hot wiring it so the door opens, as it opens I charge out into the darkened hallway. To my surprise no one is around and the lights are out. Then Chid’s words just before he died hit me, he came down here by himself to torture me, so he had to make sure nobody knew he was coming so it must be night still. For a brief second I begin to think that maybe just maybe I can escape.
“Squad three go and search the northwest section of the medical ward, Squad four set up a perimeter around the landing pad, Squad two will check the surrounding jungle for any signs of the escapee. Squad one will go with me to check the southwest wing of the medical center.” I can hear the stormtrooper captain give commands over the comlink I dug out of the helmet of the dead stormtrooper I caught walking alone near the edge of the jungle. So they suspect I am in the jungle and probably heading for a shuttle at the landing pad. Well I guess I’ll just have to be faster than them, so I took off running through the jungle, which was dangerous in the pre-dawn gloom because I couldn’t see where I was stepping and I could step into a hole or trip over a root and break my leg. I reached the edge of the jungle nearest the landing pad. I can see the squad of stormtroopers marching their way towards the landing pad from my right about 50 meters away and directly ahead of me about 100 meters was the landing pad and a waiting shuttle.
“Well it’s now or never,” I hope that the darkness will cover my dash to the shuttle. As I break the tree line and run towards the shuttle I hear a stormtrooper give a shout. Of course those helmets must have some sort of vision enhancement equipment and I was spotted as soon as I broke cover; now it was a foot race. I ran as fast as I could towards the shuttle surrounded by a hail of blaster fire. Most of the laser blasts were impacting on the ground in front of and behind me, showering me with clouds of permacrate that left me covered with small cuts. I smelled burnt fur and felt heat as a shot creased my right thigh. I was almost there just a few more meters and I would be able to duck behind the shuttle and access its boarding ramp. Within steps of freedom I felt a sharp blinding pain in my back, my foot caught on a piece of rumble and I fell face first into the ground sliding to a stop against the landing strut. Pain was the last thing I felt, as black spots danced in front of my eye pain spread across my back from the blaster bolt and my knees, chest, and face burned from sliding across permacrete. My last thought before I blacked out was about Chid’s death and my dream, because my dream didn’t end like this.
Continue on to Chapter 5
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