Shoving

Karr shielded his eyes and squinted across the bright, dry landscape. The blockhouse shutters were open for business, but the line there had thinned. A little side landing where livestock and droids were corralled, sorted, and sold had become very quiet except for the nervous grunts of happabores.

“Stop it! Get off me!”

It was Maize.

Karr panicked, scanning the scene for her—then following her voice as she continued her shrill, angry protests. When he finally caught up to her, his heart sank.

She was being dragged away between two First Order stormtroopers.

They completely ignored her kicks, shouts, and thrown elbows, hauling her out of the outpost and toward a ship whose hull poked up beyond the far side of the nearest dune.

How had he not heard it?

How had he not seen the troopers?

He meant to rush to her side, but RZ-7 swooped in to stop him. “Sir, you can’t help her now.”

“I have to try!” He flung himself across the market, through the line at the blockhouse, and straight into the back of the nearest soldier—who stumbled and let go of Maize’s left arm. “Let go of her!”

Maize took the opportunity to lob a well-placed knee at the crotch of the trooper who held her right arm. He twisted fast enough to miss the worst of it and tucked her loose arm behind her back so he could hold her pinned.

She couldn’t do anything but writhe and swear.

The other trooper found his feet and gave Karr a shove. “Buzz off, kid. This isn’t any business of yours.”

“She’s my friend!”

“And our ride home…” noted RZ-7 in a too-loud whisper that only Karr seemed to hear.

Maize reared up and bowed her back, trying to pop loose of the soldier’s grip, but she couldn’t get any traction. “My dad sent them! They want to take me back!”

“No,” Karr said to the galaxy at large. “No, you can’t take her. She’s with me.”

“You want to come with her?” said the man snidely, his voice rendered fuzzy and digital by the helmet.


- Force Collector, Chapter 11