Star Wars: Rebel Rising(18)

“I’m not,” Jyn said, louder this time, her finger twitching but still not pulling the trigger.

He took another step.

A blaster shot erupted, and the scientist dropped. Jyn was so surprised that she screamed, a short burst of pure emotion, and dropped her own, unfired blaster. Jari stood at the other end of the transport tunnel, his blaster drawn.

“What were you doing?” he asked, concern rippling his forehead. “Why didn’t you fire?”

“I—I…” Jyn’s voice trailed off, her eyes drinking in the way the scientist didn’t move.

“Time to go.” Saw’s voice cut through the air, and for the first time, Jyn realized that there was no more blaster fire, no more thuds and shouting.

It was already over.

Saw, Xosad, and the others stomped across the transport tube, ignoring the body of the scientist. Jyn stumbled back, holstering her blaster. Saw slammed the port door shut, spinning the locks into place, and joined Xosad in the cockpit.

Jyn ran to the door, looking out the small viewport as the transport tube disconnected. Explosive decompression forced the stormtroopers and the scientist to shoot across the short distance, their bodies slamming into the side of the ship before bouncing off amid the rest of the debris from the open Imperial pinnace. Jyn jumped away from the window, covering her mouth in disgust, bile rising in her throat. Xosad’s ship took off, heading to a place it could safely jump to lightspeed.

Jyn watched as the Imperial ship and its scattered contents floated through the emptiness of space.



Once in hyperspace, Saw and Xosad joined the others in the common room of the ship to discuss what they’d uncovered.

“Those were the same scientists who were part of the Ilum mission the Empire sent out three months ago,” Saw said.

Xosad nodded. “Whatever the Empire is doing, these events definitely seem linked.”

Bilder piled up a stack of datapads he’d taken from the Imperial ship. “This will take a while to analyze,” he said.

“Jyn can help.” Saw glanced at her. He had yet to notice that she had not spoken at all since the ship headed back toward home. “Jyn?” he said quietly.

“I can help,” she repeated automatically.

The others continued talking, discussing what they’d found in the lab and what the implications of it all might be. Jyn slipped quietly off the bench seat. The room felt tiny now, claustrophobic, and Jyn wanted nothing more than to get off the ship, but there was nothing outside, just hyperspace and death, death like the scientist floating in the black.

She found her way to a little hallway that, she suspected, led to bunks for Xosad and his men. She didn’t want to violate their privacy, so she just sank to the floor, her knees to her chin, her back against the metal wall.

She didn’t look up when she heard familiar footsteps making their way toward her. She would know Saw anywhere.

“Hey,” he said, crouching so his face was even with hers.

“I’ve seen death before,” Jyn said hollowly. “Worse than that. But…”

“It’s always rough when it’s your first kill.” Saw’s voice was sympathetic, but Jyn didn’t have the courage to tell him that she had not shot the scientist; Jari had.

“I remember a mission not that long ago,” Saw continued, shifting so he was sitting beside Jyn. “It was one of those ‘we’re so outnumbered and may not make it out alive’ missions that I always seem to find myself in. The Empire…” Saw shook his head. “They take . They take and they take and they take. They’re like a child, and we have to be the ones to say ‘no more.’”

Jyn nodded, not really listening. My mother didn’t hesitate when she fired her blaster, she thought.

“We wanted to protect some planets that the Empire wanted to destroy. Not outright, not even the Empire’s that evil. But they were mining, and they didn’t care about the people or the environment. They were going to suck those planets dry. And we weren’t going to let them.”

I wonder if she killed anyone. It was Jyn’s mother who had told her always to set the blaster to stun. But Jyn hadn’t done that since the blaster became hers. And her mother had shot to kill back on Lah’mu. She’d missed Krennic’s heart, but that was where she’d aimed.

“Do you hear me, Jyn? We weren’t going to let the Empire win.”

Jyn turned to Saw, her eyes focusing on his lips as if she could see the words coming from his mouth.

“And our plan was, if we couldn’t stop the Empire, we’d at least make sure they didn’t get what they wanted. How did that Hiitian put it? ‘What we fail to protect, we will leave in ruins.’”

Saw reached up, wrapping Jyn’s cold fingers in his palm. “I don’t think I understood what he meant until today,” he told her.

“We weren’t trying to protect any planets today,” Jyn said.

“I’m not talking about any planets.”

He reached up and tucked a strand of Jyn’s brown hair behind her ear.

“You can’t protect me,” Jyn said.

“At least I taught you how to protect yourself.” And there was pride there, true pride for what Saw assumed Jyn had done that day.

She ducked her head, unable to look at him.