Writing Exercise: Surrounded (a Star Wars adventure starring Dan Graham)

​(Dammit) Dan Graham is the wizard behind the scenes at the Early Late Night Live show, as well as being a good actor, cameraman, editing pro, and all around good guy. Plus, we both love Star Wars, so writing this intro was not only easy, it was a blast! (See what I did there?)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Set in Timothy Zahn’s universe)

     Zarah was trapped. The clone stormtroopers were closing in on her, stalking down the narrow ravine, heavy boots pounding against the forest flooring. To her back was a solid wall of earth, too slippery to climb. Her lightsaber was gone, lost several yards away when the stray blast had knocked it from her hand and what was worse, she could no longer feel the Force. It was as though someone had dropped and iron curtain between her and it and the loss was as keen as parting with a limb. Only one thing could cause that sensation and a specimen of it was inching along a branch a yard out of her reach – Ysalami.
     The troops came into view.
      “There she is!”
    Four blasters raised, their barrels glinting dully in the light. Zarah stopped and turned. If she died today, so be it – but she would not die a coward, trying to run away from – 
     “Hey, you guys!”
     The shout came from above. Heads turned, Zarah’s included. She just had time to make out a stocky man, dressed in a green leather jacket and wearing a heavy pack on his back. He waved to them and suddenly Zarah realized that he was holding her lightsaber. 
     “What the…?”
     But she never got a chance to finish. The man jumped off the cliff. His pack ignited at the same time as the lightsaber. The troop commander shouted a warning, but he wasn’t fast enough. The man was nimble and quick and the lightsaber flashed. In a second, the troopers were on the ground and the man was landing in front of her, grinning like he’d just won first place in a speeder race.
      “I think this is yours,” he said, handing the lightsaber over with a flourish.
    She took it, stunned, and looked up into a pair of laughing brown eyes. “Who are you?” she asked.
    “Graham,” he said, as though she should already know the name. “Dan Graham. And it looks like someone needs a lift out of here.”