Star Wars - Gathering Shadows - The Origin of the Black Curs - Unpublished

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Book: Read Star Wars - Gathering Shadows - The Origin of the Black Curs - Unpublished for Free Online
Authors: Kathy Burdette
anytime he tried to stand on his own, and not with a terrified, unarmed guard shaking him by the collar. Harkness wasn’t sure he could prevent his head from being shoved right through the bars. But then it got worse: the guard gave up on the bars and started ramming Harkness’ head against the floor. There was a resounding pain through Harkness’ skull, a blinding ache that shot through his temples, his teeth, his neck.
    Then there was the sound of a blaster being fired—no, several blasters—and some shouts. The guard hesitated. That was all Harkness needed. He reached back, got his fingers underneath the guard’s helmet, and yanked the guard’s helmet clean oil.
    Now Harkness had something better than a blaster. The guard turned out to be a stocky, blond kid, whose face took on an expression of unadulterated panic as Harkness got up on his knees and started bashing away with the helmet.
    “Stop, he’s out already, take it easy!”
    Someone grabbed Harkness by the shoulder. He looked up. blurry-eyed, at someone wearing white and green, and an unmistakable Imperial cap.
    “Back off!” he shouted, swinging the helmet at the person’s knees. Whoever-it-was managed to dodge out of the way, and said, “Hey, whoa! It’s me! Take it easy!”

    Harkness stopped himself. His vision cleared; the Imperial was a platinum-haired woman wearing a fancy white smuggler’s shirt and half a trooper uniform. He looked wildly into her eyes, which shifted nervously back and forth as she took him in. “Remember? We’re your partners…. We brought you to Zelos.”
    Someone else appeared behind her, a Twi’lek wearing dark glasses and gray robes caked in dirt. Harkness wasn’t sure what their names were, but their manner was familiar; he felt his whole body relax.
    “You…” he said after a moment. “We went to the—didn’t you help me nail down a shipment of Imperial blasters? You’re Tru’eb… and Platt.”
    “Actually, we’re Platt and Tru’eb,” Platt said.
    “You came all this way to get me?”
    “We’re funny that way. Do you think you can stand? We’re going to get you out of here, okay?”
    Harkness jerked away, as if he suddenly remembered to be crazed. “No! They took her down the hall!”
    “Who?”
    “Jai! One of the New Republic agents—they were taking both of us down to the chamber, but she wouldn’t even fight—”
    “Which chamber? Where?” Tru’eb asked, grabbing him around the waist and pulling him to his feet. Harkness leaned on Tru’eb’s shoulder with most of his weight; Tru’eb didn’t seem to strain at all.
    Which door? Harkness looked down the corridor at the row of black doors to his right; the guards had taken Jai through the one with the large white Imperial seal painted on it, although Harkness could have sworn he remembered being shoved through two red-stamped doors before his own interrogation. Moreover, this white-stamped door turned out to be labeled “Command Center.”
    As Platt worked at getting a code cylinder into the slot, Harkness found himself looking at his reflection in the metal doorframe. In fact, several seconds passed before he realized that the reflection was actually his; it blinked when he blinked and moved its head when he moved his. But its face was pale, with a mangy light-brown beard sprouting around the hollow cheeks, and the white eyepatch was now a filthy gray.
    Platt turned around, scowling. “I lost the other code cylinders with the jacket. Anyway, there’s no way Radlin had this much clearance.”
    “But you did say you had thought of a plan?” Tru’eb said.
    “Yeah, but it had a hitch in it.” Platt said.
    “Who cares?” said Harkness. “Tell us!”
    “Okay—first, I pretend I’m a prison guard and I tell everyone I’m bringing Tru’eb in as a prisoner. Then we get into a heated fight in front of the Imperials, so that they’re totally confused for half a second, which is all the time we need to stun everyone, get into the

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