of being alone.
"Show me your new Jedi exercises, Master. Teach me other things." Skywalker
seemed to flinch at being called "Master," and Gantoris wondered what he had
done wrong--was not Luke Skywalker a Jedi Master? How else should he be
called?
Skywalker brushed aside the comment. He pointed to the thicket of girders
and rusted metal bars in which flocks of the leathery black creatures made
their homes, chittering and moving about in the afternoon. Far below, the
clouds thickened into what could become another storm.
"Those flying creatures," Skywalker said. "We will use them."
Streen stiffened. His face grew dark and ruddy. "Hey, don't disturb my
rawwks." Then he lowered his eyes, turning away as if embarrassed by his
outburst. "They've been my only company all these years."
"We won't harm them," Skywalker said. "Just watch." He lowered his voice to
speak as an instructor to Gantoris. "This city is a complex mechanism. Every
girder, every metal plate, every life-form from those rawwks to the airborne
algae sacks and everything around us, each has its own position in the
Force. Size matters not. Tiny insects or entire floating cities, each is an
integral part of the universe. You must feel it, sense it."
He nodded to the derelict structures around them. "I want you to look at
this city, imagine how the pieces fit together, find the girders with your
mind, tell me what you can sense and how one thing touches another. When you
think you have found the intersection where a rawwk and girder touch, I want
you to reach out and push with your mind. Make a little vibration."
Skywalker curled his forefinger around his thumb and stretched forward as he
nodded toward a lone rawwk sitting on the end of a weather vane. He flicked
out his finger, as if to shoo away a gnat, and Gantoris heard a distant
pinnngg. Startled into the air, the rawwk flapped its wings and cried out in
alarm.
Gantoris chuckled and, eager to try, flicked his own finger in imitation of
what the Jedi had just done. He imagined seeing a whole flock of the rawwks
take flight--but nothing happened.
"It is not that easy," Skywalker said. "You aren't concentrating. Think,
feel yourself doing it, envision your success--then reach out with your
mind."
More serious this time, Gantoris pursed his lips and squinted, looking for
his target. He saw a delicate many-branched antenna on which five rawwks
sat. He pictured the antenna, knowing his target, and stared. He took a deep
breath and pushed. He still didn't quite know what he was doing, but he felt
something happening in his mind, something working, some outside ... force
linking him and the antenna.
He watched as the antenna slowly swayed. The rawwks stirred but remained on
their perches. Anyone else watching might have assumed the wind had shifted
at that moment, but Gantoris knew he had done it.
"Good attempt. You have the right idea, but now close your eyes," Skywalker
said. "You're letting your sight blind you. You know where the antenna is,
you know where the rawwks are. You can sense their place in the Force. You
don't need to see with your eyes. Tighten your focus. Feel it, know what you
want to do."
Skeptical, Gantoris closed his eyes; but as he concentrated, he could indeed
see vague outlines of what he had just looked at, tiny afterimages imprinted
on the Force with tendrils reaching out and connecting them to everything
else.
He reached out with his fingers to make the flicking gesture again but
hesitated. He realized he did not need that either. Flicking the fingers was
simply an example for Skywalker to make his point. Whatever actions he made,
waving his hands or muttering spells were just so much mumbo jumbo.
Understanding the Force was what allowed him to do what he needed.
Pleased with this sudden insight, Gantoris kept his eyes closed and folded
his arms. He flicked out an imaginary finger, feeling the metal, picturing
his fingernail striking the hard surface. In his head he heard the hollow
bong as it struck, then opened his eyes to watch the five rawwks burst into
flight, cawing at each other as if casting blame.
"Good!" Skywalker said. "I'm impressed. I thought this was going to be much
more difficult." Still grinning, he looked at Streen, who had been watching
them in silence. "Would you like to try it? You have the potential. I could
show you how."
Streen balked. "No, I ... I don't think I could do that."
"It isn't as difficult as it looks," Gantoris said. "You'll feel a different
strength come into you."
"I don't want to," Streen said again, defensively. Then he lowered his eyes
and patted his pockets, as if looking for something he didn't expect to
find. Gantoris thought he was just making distracted movements.
The old man swallowed, then looked back at Skywalker. "If you teach me how
to use this...sense I have--can you also teach me how to switch it off? I
want to learn how not to feel the people around me, not to be bombarded by
their moods and prying thoughts and sour ideas. I'm tired of having only
rawwks for company. I'd very much like to be part of the human race again."
Skywalker clapped him on the shoulder. In his dark jumpsuit he looked like a
benevolent god. "That much I can show you."
Luke watched as Streen cut loose the fiber-chains holding his floating
hodgepodge ship to the Tibannopolis docking area. Standing on the docking
platform, he gave his ship an unnecessary shove out into the breezes. The
empty barge of platforms and balloons, propellers and gas storage tanks,
drifted out to be caught up by swirling air currents.
Streen had emptied the pockets in his jumpsuit and now looked at Luke. "I
know I'm not coming back. That old life is over."
The three of them climbed aboard Luke's passenger shuttle and made ready to
depart Bespin. Luke felt a glowing satisfaction, not just to be leaving the
gas planet that held so many dark memories, but to have both passenger seats
filled, to have two new candidates for his Jedi academy.
He raised the shuttle off the landing platform, then began a steep climb
toward orbit. Below them, in the opposite direction, Streen's abandoned
platform continued drifting on its own, widening the gap between it and the
derelict city.
Streen looked out the passenger window, staring with a bleak sadness that
struck Luke's heart with pity. Below, the ghost town of Tibannopolis was
truly empty again.
Then Luke watched something amazing happen. The city came alive with
movement, swarming as tiny black figures took to the air. Thousands and
thousands of rawwks that had made their home with Streen suddenly took
flight, departing the abandoned metropolis in a huge flock that kept coming
and coming and coming, spreading out among the clouds in a farewell salute
to Streen.
Looking out the window and watching this, Streen smiled.
Skynxnex inserted a new charge pack into his double-blaster, smiled at the
weapon, then thrust it into the holster. "Thank you, Moruth," he said. "You
/>
won't regret this."
Doole tapped his spongy fingers on the former warden's desk. One of the
loose iridescent insects fluttered around the room, battering itself again
and again on the wide landscape window.
"Just try not to make a mess of it," Doole said. "I want Solo gone and all
traces removed. Nothing left. It's only a matter of time before the New
Republic comes nosing around. We've got to be absolutely clean. Is the
energy shield functional yet?"
"We're testing it this morning, and our engineers are confident it'll work.
Solo and the Wookiee will be dead by then," Skynxnex said. "My personal
guarantee."
Doole's lips curled like a rubbery gasket stretched out of shape. "Don't
enjoy yourself too much."
Skynxnex smiled back at him and turned to leave. His black eyes glittered.
"Only as much as necessary," he said.
The mine car roared through the tunnels in total blackness. Han had no
choice but to trust the computer guidance system.
Chewbacca had found the accelerator button and punched it repeatedly, trying
to get farther away from the multi-legged horror deep in the mines.
Han gripped the sides of the car with hands gone white from cold and terror.
Each time they shot past a gaping side tunnel, his imagination heard noises
of skittering legs and scythe-like claws reaching out to pluck them from the
passing car.
"Our course is taking us back to the muster room," Kyp said. "This could be
our chance to escape."
"Where else should we go?" Han asked. He felt his heart pounding. Chewbacca
groaned a question, and Han translated it. "Do you know any other way out of
these tunnels?"
"I don't," Kyp said, "but maybe I could find one."
Han fought to contain a sudden fit of shudders. "I don't know about you, but
I'm in no mood to go wandering through dark tunnels feeling for a way
out--not with that thing chasing after us." The thought of a freezing death
in the energy-draining fangs of the monster made the option of imprisonment
in the spice mines seem not so terrible after all.
Before they could form some sort of alternative plan, the floating mine cars
coasted to a halt in the long holding chamber. The metal door at the far end
slammed shut behind them. With his infrared goggles, Han could see the
activation controls on the wall next to an inner door. His knees were weak;
his hands trembled as he punched access for the muster room.
Light flooded around them, and the three survivors staggered inside, holding
each other. Chewbacca used his hairy arms to keep both Han and Kyp on their
feet.
Dazzled, Han cupped his hands over his eyes and let the infrared goggles
dangle on his neck. "Boss Roke is dead," he croaked to no one in particular.
"There's a monster in the tunnels. It attacked the guard. We barely got
away."
"Han--'' Kyp said.
Chewbacca sniffed, then roared in anger.
Han fought to focus his vision. He heard people rustling in the muster room.
He saw only shadows in the glare. Finally, he could make out a tall, gangly
form with dark hair and sunken eyes on a skull-like face.
"Glad you're back, Solo," Skynxnex said from the other side of the room. He
drew the double-blaster at his hip.
Everything seemed to move slowly for Han. He had not yet come down from the
boost of adrenaline caused by utter terror. Han saw the gun, saw Skynxnex,
saw the man's cadaverous face. Doole had sent his henchman to kill them.
Han wasted no time, shoving Chewbacca backward. "Back in, Chewie! We've got
to get out of here!" He yanked Kyp through the open doorway. Chewbacca let
out a yowl and lunged into the dark chamber where the floating mine cars
waited.
"Hey!" Skynxnex began to run in long, leaping strides that carried him
across the muster room. Han sealed the door in his face, scrambling the lock
mechanism.
"It'll take him a second to figure the access code. Get in the car, now!"
Han leaped onto the swaying pilot seat. "Looks like we're going to try one
of those alternatives you wanted, Kyp."
He powered up the rocking vehicle. From the other side of the door came
pounding and then the sounds of blasters striking the metal. Skynxnex was
going to disintegrate his way through. They had to get to the relative
safety of the tunnels right away.
Han punched up the computer guidance system and let the vehicle go. The
great metal door on the far side of the long holding tunnel slid open with a
grinding sound as the mine car accelerated back down the central tunnel from
which they had just come.
"I hate to go back there," Han said. Chewbacca roared a comment, and Han
nodded. "Yeah, I hate even worse to be blasted."
"Do you know Skynxnex?" Kyp asked, regaining his breath.
"We're old buddies," Han said. "That's why he wants to kill us."
The floating car rushed through the half-open metal gate just as the door
from the muster room melted open, spilling a wedge of light into the tunnel.
"They're only going to be a minute behind us," Han said. With his infrared
goggles he could see the pilot controls now--but none of the coordinates
meant anything to him. The only exit he knew of was back through the muster
room. "Any ideas, Kyp?"
"It's an automated course," Kyp said. "If I had time to think and get my
bearings, I might be able to figure out something."
"We don't have that luxury right now."
The great metal door did not close behind them after they passed through.
Wind whipped past their ears as Han kept his finger on the accelerator
button. From behind they heard shouts, other people climbing into waiting
mine cars. Han leaned over the controls, but the repulsorlifts could go only
so fast.
Unable to see, and without any knowledge of the labyrinth of underground
tunnels, Han did not dare fly the car manually. He would have to hope he
could get far enough ahead so that Skynxnex could not follow ... but then
what? They would be lost in the cold, dark maze. How many other multi-legged
monsters waited for them in the shadows?
The sound of another mine car came roaring up behind them. Han had three
cars linked together, hauling three riders with only one engine. If Skynxnex
and the others took one car each, they would travel faster. They would be in
blaster range within moments.
"Solo!" Skynxnex bellowed.
"Hold on!" Kyp said.
Han instinctively braced himself as the computer guidance system yanked them
to the left-hand fork in an unseen tunnel, then plunged them steeply
downward. Before Han could wonder if they had lost their pursuers, he heard
the echoing whine of repulsorlift vehicles soaring down the tunnel after
them.
"I'm open to suggestions," Han said. He looked behind them with his infrared
goggles and saw the glowing target of Skynxnex and two other piloted
vehicles. In the cold darkness his own body heat would be just as apparent
to the pursuers.
Chewbacca held on to Kyp, pushing him down to safety in the second car. The
Wookiee reached behin
d him, fumbling with the catch to the empty third car.
Skynxnex and the two guards closed the gap. With a growl at the pursuers,
Chewbacca decoupled the magnetic bearing from the third car.
Suddenly released, the empty car swung out behind them, dropping toward the
ground. Skynxnex cried out as he swerved up to avoid a collision.
The other two guards both curved to the left, battering into each other, but
somehow all three pursuers kept their balance. They roared after Han.
"Nice try, Chewie," Han said.
Skynxnex pulled out his modified double-blaster, powered it on, and aimed.
When he fired, the two barrels sent their beams out at slight intersecting
angles to each other. A short distance beyond the muzzle, the two beams
coalesced and phased, forming a staccato series of bursts, each one
containing a brief impulse of power ten times that of a single blaster beam.
Though the weapon looked impressive, it was almost impossible to aim, and
most other users--even hardened criminals--had dropped them in favor of more
reliable weapons.
The phased double beam poured out, striking the ceiling of the tunnel ahead
of Han. The explosion of heat and light blinded him through the infrared
goggles. Somehow Kyp reacted with molten speed and yanked the floating car
sideways. Miraculously, they swerved around the debris that fell from above,
struck only by the patter of small pebbles.
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