notallofus | (no subject)

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For someone raised in the Jedi tradition, sometimes Kanan feels like he should be bothered less by the clinical nature of his current surroundings. But everything in this pharmeceutical lab is so medical, it's almost like he's waiting for droids to swarm out of the woodwork threatening to give him shots.

Which is painfully ridiculous, not least because what's likely to come swarming out of any currently-closed doors is a patrol of stormtroopers. If he and Hera start tripping alarms, that is.

Which they won't. This op is going smoothly so far, and with any luck and no judicious use of the Force at all, that trend ought to continue until they pass the supplies they're carrying -- well, pushing -- off to their contact here on Sesid.

Sometimes it's nice visiting a planet that has its own homegrown rebellious population.

"Lab 31. We're almost there."

Just two more doors. Then a run through a series of underutilized storage spacees and out by the docks. Piece of cake.

Sure.

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"These rooms aren't empty."

Does he wish they were? Maybe. But then, if they were empty, that would only mean that the people kept in them were dead, which --

Is worse. More convenient for the mission, maybe, but most definitely worse.

"There's people in them. Not soldiers, not scientists, but prisoners."

That feels right, somehow. Feels true. And with their horror still lingering in his head, the truth and what feels like truth is all he's got.

They have what they came for. Everything so far has gone according to plan. Their way out was difficult, but not at all impossible. Adding people, let alone prisoners, could make it impossible.

None of this makes her hesitate.

Hera looks over her shoulder, then steps around the cart, toward the closest door, and examines the panel next to it. "Tighter security," she murmurs. "Needs a key card and code." Their stolen key cards had been enough for the supply rooms they'd raided.

She turns back to him. "Whatever's in here, they wanted to keep it a secret.

"They always do," Kanan says. It sounds careless, tripping off his tongue, but behind that he's tired. So tired of the things people do to each other just because they can.

"I'm guessing it's a secret we're not gonna let them keep?"

He knows Hera. If she's not already re-sketching their plans, he'll --

He'll --

He'll eat his own lightsaber.

"I don't see why we should let them."

Hera gives him a quick smile, before looking back to the panel. "I don't know if I can open it on this end."

She reaches down to the comlink on her belt. "Specter-3, come in. Are you still in the system?"

When Chopper beeps affirmatively, she cuts him off quickly. "All right, I need you to find a way to override secondary locks on Level Thre- yes, I know that wasn't part of the plan. Hold your bolts together, because we might also need an alternate route out."

It's only then that she takes a deep breath, replacing the comlink and taking out her keycard.

"Better plan than I had," Kanan offers, because his plan mostly involved the use of blasting away at the lock until it gave.

"I'm thinking we can use the carts, too, to give some people a ride that need it."

There's no guarantee that everyone in there is capable of walking. For one.

And it'll let them keep the supplies.

She nods, glancing down at the carts, with obvious concern. "We'll see what we can do."

A light on the panel turns green. Hera bites her lip, hoping, and slides her card through it.

The door slides open. Her hand falls again, this time to her blaster, and she steps to the side of the door, checking for any guards inside. The lights are low, and now she can make out figures inside, but no one standing or moving.

With another nod to Kanan, Hera steps inside.

It's not as horrible as Kanan might have imagined it to be, no one with oozing sores or obviously hacked-off limbs.

But it isn't pretty, either. Cracked lips, dazed eyes, a lot of the smell of people heaving up the contents of their stomachs.

Some of them are kids, which at least tells Kanan who's most likely to end up on top of the carts.

He moves farther into the room, his own hand hovering near his blaster, medical supplies left just to the outside.

"Do you think this is all of them?"

There's a chance he could see for himself, and he's certainly trying, but -- misery's kind of loud to filter out, especially this close.

She isn't surprised, or shocked. But Hera looks to them first, before she answers Kanan, before she thinks about her answer. She approaches them, takes in their number, dry Draeden skin, some of them bound to chairs or bedding, the children looking too weak to stand. Hera takes a deep breath.

Even if she isn't shocked, she can never become inured.

She moves to the closest bed. Its occupant looks up - Draedens have red eyes, and Hera can see splotches of gray on her green skin. Wasting no time, Hera simplly asks here, "Are there others?"

The Draeden doesn't speak, but moves her head into something like a nod. And Hera reaches down to her belt, this time grabbing her vibroblade, and slicing through her bindings. Now, answering Kanan, "If you can get them out, I'll look for the others."

"I've got this."

His forehead is pinched with concentration, but his hands are gentle as he starts moving around the room, cutting through bindings, helping people stand, supporting them until they've got their balance and the measure of their atrophied limbs.

"Here, let's get the kids up on these stacks."

Some of them are so small. Some of the adults are also tiny, probably due to illness and lack of food. It hurts to see.

She moves on to the next room, her blaster still holstered but her hand resting over it. There are others in here, fewer than in the firsts room, but she knows many more and their group will become untenable.

The next two rooms are empty - but clearly recently so. There are stains, unmade beds, metal trays holding injectors and unused sample cases. Hera doesn't linger, immediately heading to the last room.

It's not empty, but there's no one in there they can help.

She returns to the second room, moving as quickly as she can to cut through bindings, help up those who can stand, guiding them to help one another. As they're heading toward the door, she pulls out her comlink again.

"Spectre-3, or party's getting bigger, do you have another route for me?"

The response is a good deal of aggravated beeping, but Hera still answers, "Thanks, let our getaway know."

"He got anything for us?"

Kanan's moving the medical supply carts away from the door, a kid or two riding atop each, as the rest of the Draeden make their way out of the room, some leaning heavily on each other, others stumbling along on their own.

"Whoops, there we go."

Kanan catches one older woman that starts toppling, guiding her to lean on the cart for a second or two to catch her breath.

"We're not going to be able to move very fast, but I think we can still make it."

In case Hera wondered.

She steps ahead of the group, glancing in both directions before leading onward.

"The service turbolift," she says to Kanan, her voice low.

"The service -- "

His eyebrows lift, he can't quite help it.

"If we thought someone was gonna see us before, our group is definitely more noticeable now. And it's gonna seem real strange if the lift doesn't open at all on the way down, considering we're close to the shift change."

"Well, that's why we're not going to go in it."

Hera takes a deep breath, still leading the path forward, though also looking over her shoulder to ensure they're staying together.

"Spectre-3 can trigger the emergency stop, we'll just need it when we get on and off. We'll have to be fast, but it'll take us right to the loading dock."

She looks back to him now, with an expression that clearly says, Can you think of a better plan?

Kanan rubs a hand over his face -- quickly, to minimize the time he's not balancing the cart-and-kids combination with all his focus -- and shakes his head.

"Sounds like it'll work, but I don't have to like it. You sure 3's got enough precision to keep us from having to give any of our friends a boost?"

A Force boost, he means.

"After the second stop, he'll need to leave to rendezvous with us in time," she says. "We'll have to be off before the override's reversed."

No. She's not sure.

He takes a deep breath, holds it in, centers himself, lets it out.

"I'll do what I have to to make it work."

Unless and until she tells him otherwise. Hopefully it just never comes up.

But he can't leave these people here. He won't. He knows Hera's the same.

Hera raises one hand, stopping them short before they reach the end of the hall.

She continues on, stepping carefully to the corner, just barely edging around it before immediately pulling back. One hand reaches for her blaster, while she puts the other to her mouth, signaling the others to be silent.

There's the sound of doors opening, the patter of footsteps, and then doors closing once more. Hera pulls up her comlink.

"Sepctre-3, now."

Kanan starts assembling their party into some appearance of order -- not a line, but with the most mobile getting on the top early, with the least mobile -- and the kids -- at the back where he can judiciously give a little help.

"Go, go, go," he murmurs, touching shoulders when it's someone's turn to climb onto the top of the elevator.

He brings up the rear, of course. Just in case.

"Stay inside, away from the walls," Hera warns. This isn't too difficult - the lift is large, meant to haul large groups and the kinds of carts Hera and Kanan were moving. She helps them move quietly on top of the elevator, taking a few of them from Kanan, and encouraging all of them to sit if they need to - they don't want anyone falling once it's moving.

Once Kanan has stepped on board, she pulls out her comm. "Okay, close the doors and let us go."

The hall they were in disappears, leaving only the dim lights in the shaft above them, as the lift starts to move downward again.

Some of the Draeden wobble as the lift jerks to a start, and Kanan does his best to steady them. With his hands.

Honestly.

"Here, lean on -- yes, like that."

Most of them seem to be doing all right, but he sticks right by the few that are still very unsteady on their feet. If any of them sick up --

Well, he just hopes that they don't. And once he's over by Hera --

"Are we turning left or right once we're out of here?"

"Left."

The lift periodically shudders to a stop, and then resumes again. Her eyes blink between the Draeden, and the passing numbers in the shaft.

"Maybe fifteen meters to the docks, probably wouldn't be accepting a delivery this close to the shift change, but there will probably be guards, maybe three."

She nods to the passing number, "We're almost there."

"Maybe they'll all conveniently have their backs turned."

It's wishful thinking, and Kanan's already moving away from Hera to start chivvying the more mobile Draeden up and toward the front. That should give him time to get the rest of them set up for moving.

He hopes.

And there's the slowdown and the click of the emergency stop.

Great.

Everything's fine.

Hera takes the lead again, stepping out and ensuring the coast is clear before helping the others out of the shaft. It's dark, concrete halls, unlike the clinical environment they'd been in above, but for the moment it seems that they're alone.

A couple of the stronger Draeden come out first, and help her in pulling out the others, and in guiding their carts out onto the floor. Everyone understands they need to be quick, and before long the shaft is nearly empty.

Nearly, but not completely so. Kanan is still on the top of the lift, helping out the last of the Draeden that really need someone to lower them into Hera's waiting arms.

"Two more," Kanan says, voice very carefully calm and not reflecting any hint of effort.

Because things are taking just that little bit too long.