by Brian Daley
There was a noise from below, boots on the stairs. Doe reappeared, puffing. He threw himself down next to Ham his face composed in alarm. Han hand-signaled him to speak quietly so that those above wouldnt hear.
Han, the Espos have come! Their assault craft is at the lowe- lock, unloading a strike force. Theyve linked up with the Authority people who were hiding from us down there They drove us off the engineering levels; many were shot, and we were forced back. More died on the stairs before a rear guard was organ-ized, but the Espos are pushing a heavy blaster up, step by step. Were in it where its deep, this time!
A stream of prisoners was already pouring franti-cally up the stairwell. bound for the only shelter left, the tier blocks. The Fspos down there have spacesuits on, Dec said. What if they bleed off our air?
Hen abruptly saw that the men around him were looking to him for an answer, and thought, Who, me? Im just the getaway driver, remember?
He shook his head. tm tapped out, Dec. Get your-self some machinery. well play them one last chorus.
Hirkens voice boomed down triumphantly. Solo! My men just contacted me by corn-link! Surrender now, or Ill leave you here! As if to emphasize that, they heard the oscillation of a heavy blaster some-where in Stars End.
Well, theyll still have to come through to us, Han muttered. He grabbed Docs shirt, but recalling Hirken, spoke in a low, hard tone. Dont sweat the air; the Espos cant bleed it off or theyll kill their Viceprex. Thats why they hit the lower lock instead of the one at prisoner level; they knew theyd have a much better chance of getting in without having to burn and rupture the tower. Send up everyone you can, anyone wholl come. Well rush Hirken, whatever it costs, and use him as a hostage.
Remembering the barrage the Authority people could lay down in the narrow stairwell, he knew that the price would be tenible. Doe did, too, and pushed himself off looking, for the first time, like the very tired old man he finally felt himself to be.
Dont stop for anything, Han was telling the others. If somebody falls, somebody else grabs his machinery, but nobody stops.
He caught Chewbaccas eye. The Weekfee peeled back his lips from his curved fangs, scrunching his black nose, and sounded a savage, appalling howl, shaking his shaggy head---a Wookiees way of defying death. Then he grinned and rumbled at Hah, who smiled 1opsidedly. They were close enough friends not to have to make any more of it than that.
MORE inmates had come up to the landing, but they were unarmed. Hah repeated instructions about weap-ons and not stopping. His heart pounded when he thought how concentrated the energy beams would be in that stairwell. Goodbye, Old Spacemens Home.
He rose to a half crouch, and the others emulated
him. Chewie and me first, to lay down a cover. On
three; one, two-he edged to the coruer-th
A small, furry form, vaulting over those behind Hah, landed on his shoulders, tugging at his neck. Its limber tail looped out to encircle the surprised Chew-baccas wrist.
Han staggered, valor forgotten. What the flying- He identified his assailant. Pakka!
The cub swung down from Hans neck, bouncing up and down urgently, tugging at his leg. For a moment no fact seemed reliable. Pakka, didnt you, I mean, wheres Atuarre? Dammit, kid, howd you get here? He remembered then that the cub couldnt answer.
Doe was shouting from below. Solo, get down
herel
Sit on things here; dont charge and dont fall back unless you have to, Han told Chewbacca. He pressed through his troops and raced down the stairs, trailing the fleet Pakka. Inside the emergency door leading to the tier blocks, he slid to a halt. ,4 tuarre!
She was surrounded by Doe and the other prisoners. Solo-Captain! She seized his hands, her words tum-bling out on top of one another. Shed brought in the Millennium Falcon and clamped onto the cargo lock here at the tier-block level, on the opposite side of the tower from the Espo assault ship.
I dont think they noticed me; energy fluxes in Stars End are distorting sensors completely. I had to link up purely by visual tracking.
Han drew Doe and Atuarre aside. We could never,
never fit all these people into the Falcon, not if we use
every cubic centimeter of space. How do we tell
them?
The Trianii broke in. Solo-Captain, shut up! Please. And listen I have a tunnel-tube junction sta-tion secured to the Falcon. I drove it right up against the ship and made it fast with a tractor beam.
We can certainly fit inmates in the tunnel-tubes if we extend them, Doe began.
Halls excited voice overbore him. Well do better than that. Atuarre, youre a genius! But will the tunnel-tube reach? It should.
Doe was looking from one to the other. What are you two--- Oh! I see! He rubbed his hands together, eyes bright. This will be novel, for a fact.
One of the defenders from the upper landing poked his head through the emergency door. Solo, the Vice,. prex is calling for you again.
If I dont answer, hell know somethings doing. Ill send Chewie down to help you. Work fastl Solo-Captain, we have only minutes remainingl He bounded up the stairs, though it left him huffing and heaving, and threatened to black him out. Airs going, he thought. In hushed tones he explained every-thing quickly and dispatched the Wooldee and most of the others down to join Atuarre and Dec.
Then he answered Hirken. The Viceprex shouted, Times short, Solo. Will you yield?
Yield? Hah sputtered, unbelieving. What dyou have in mind, deftoration? He pegged a shot around the corner, beginning a steady harassing fire, and hoped that those below could hold the Espo assault team for the required time.
Ninety seconds later a cycling light came on over one of the unused stern air locks of the Authority as-satfit craft. No one was there to notice, because, ex-cept for a skeleton watch, the entire ships complement had been turned out to rescue the Viceprex, at his order.
The lock opened. Through it stepped a very in-censed Wooldee, hefting a captured wide-bore blaster. He was pleased, however, that he hadnt been com-pelled to waste time and power burning through the lock doors. Hed secured the outer hatch open. Behind him, floating in the weightlesshess of the extended tunnel-tube, were more prisoners, waiting with weapons and with claws and stingers and pincers and bare, eager hands. Even farther back, at the junction sta-tion, other prisoners were being crowded aboard the Falcon, while more waited to leave the tower. Since the freighter could never hold them all, this ship had to be captured.
Chewbacca gave a hand motion and set off. The others drew themselves in after, touching down as they entered the assatilt crafts artificial gravity.
The locks opening had been noted on the bridge. An Espo crewman, coming to check out what he thought would be a malfunction in the air-lock appa-ratus, rounded a corner and almost fetched up against the Wooldees enormous, furry-haired torso. A stroke of the blasters butt sent the Espo flying back through the air. He landed in a brown-clad heap, his helmet skittering along the deck.
Another Espo, down a side passageway, heard the noise and came running, tugging at his holstered pistol. Chewbacca stepped out of concealment and swung the blasters stovepipe barrel, downing him. As prisoners rushed to pick up the felled mens weapons, Chew-bacca led the rest on, past engineering and crews quarters, as small parties split off from the main group to take and hold those areas. More and more prisoners poured from the aft lock, making way quickly for the many who were to follow.
The Wooldee came to the hatch of the ships bridge.
He hit its release and, as the hatch slid up, stepped
through. A junior officer did a foolish double take and
fumbled for his pistol, saying, How in-
Chewbacca struck the officer down with a giant fore-arm, then threw his head back and roared. Those be-hind him surged into the bridge. Little of the fighting done in the next twelve seconds was with artificial weapons. None of the bridge watch ever reached an alarm hutton.
Setting the wide-bore aside, Chewbacca prepared to cast o
ff from Stars End.
Atuarre watched anxiously as she and a few chosen helpers in the big tier-level cargo lock almost threw milling prisoners into the tunnel-tube, where they thrashed like swimmers, moving and helping one an-other toward the junction station. Doe had already gone ahead to take the Falcons controls. As soon as Chewbacca had control of the assault craft, he was to free it gently from the tower so that it couldnt be re-taken, and the Espos withdrawal route would be cut off.
So many! Atuarre thought, hoping thered be room enough for all of them. Then she saw a familiar face in the crowd and abandoned her place, keening with joy.
Pakka came, too, and clung to his fathers back, holding on to both his parents for the first time in months, his wide eyes tearing.
Just then, Stars Ends general power conduits, weak-ened by erratic flow management, began to explode.
Up on the landing, Hah heard it, the beginning of Stars Ends death throes. He was holding with three others, all of them armed. Hirkens people had been quiet for the last few minutes; the Viceprex was prob-ably hoping that relief wasnt far off. And he could be right, since Espo assault troops were working their way up through the tower quickly, mowing down the prisoners opposition.
But the exploding conduits constituted a new factor. Hah ordered everybody back. Well hold at the tier-block level; pass the word below to come running. They could pull back to the air lock, which lay beyond the fifth tier block, if they had to.
He fired a few more shots up the stairwell as his runner took off. He tried to figure out how long it had been since the tower had been blown free. Twenty minutes? More? They were asking a great deal of their luck.
As Han and his men fell back, the clatter of the lower-level defenders was heard. Both groups met at the emergency door leading to the tier blocks and crowded through. Han, among the last, turned to give the man behind him a hand, only to see him die with an odd, disappointed look on his face.
Han pulled the falling body out of the way as the final prisoner leaped through. Several others helped him shoulder the ponderous door shut as blaster and disrupter fire lashed against it, and made it fast with scraps of metal jammed in the latch. But it wouldnt hold long, especially if the heavy crew-served blaster were brought up. Han surveyed the prisoners with him. How many left to load?
Almost done, fella, someone called. Just a few left, not more than a hundred or so.
Then anybody whos not armed, hat up! The rest spread out and take up a firing position. Were almost home.
They were still moving down the corridor when the emergency door crumpled inward, burned from its frame in a rain of glowing slag. The snout of the crew-served blaster stood in the gap, pointing straight into the abandoned first-tier block. Han didnt bother firing at its shielded barrel.
The heavy blaster erupted into the empty tier block, and an armored Espo carne worming around it to enter the corridor. One of the prisoners stopped long enough to shoot him. At the curve in the corridor, the defenders paused to take up firing again. The gunners were hav-ing trouble getting their piece through the emergency door without exposing themselves to counterfire.
Han and three others were the only ones left; a few prisoners had gone on to set up a new line of defense. Smoke from ruptured power conduits was getting thicker, the air thinner. Hans senses strayed for a mo-ment. He was opposite the door to the second tier block and crossed to it, bent over double, for a better field of fire.
But he spied something propped up against one of the stasis booths, halfway down the tiers aisle. Bollux, what the hell are you doing there? Evidently the droid either had been dragged or had managed to drag himself this far toward the air lock, then had been shunted aside, and pausing in the shelter of the tier block for a moment, was unable to rise again. Hah realized that no prisoner in fear of his life would have taken time to worry about an antiquated labor droid.
He ran to his side and dropped to one knee. Up and at em, Annihilator. Were beatin feet.
It took all his strength to get the droid up. Thank
you, Captain Solo, Bollux drawled. Even with Max
m direct linkage, I couldnt-Captain.t
Simultaneously with the droids warning, Han felt Bollux throw all his mechanical weight against him, sending the two of them spinning around. In the same stopped frame, as it seemed, a disrupter beam meant for Han sliced into the droids head.
As they spun, Hans draw was automatic. In that frozen instant, he saw Uul-Rha-Shan standing in the doorframe at the head of the aisle, the bodies of the other defenders on the corridor floor behind him.
The reptilian gunman had his weapon held at arms length, knowing that his first shot had missed. The dis-rupter pistol was realigning. Hah, with no time to aim, fired from the hip. Everything seemed to him to take forever, and yet to happen instantly.
The blaster bolt flowered high against Uul-Rha-Shafts green-scaled chest, lifting him and hurling him backward, while his own disrupter shot lanced upward and splashed off the ceiling.
Han and Bollux were sprawled together on the floor. There was no light in the droids photoreceptors, no evidence of function. Han rose shakily, locked the fingers of his left hand around Bolluxs shoulder pauldron, holding on to his blaster with his right, and began hatfling, heaving for breath.
He never saw the Espos who, following in Uul-Rha-Shans wake, were ready to cut him down. Nor did he see them fall, downed by the fire from the prisoners counterattack. Hans lightheadedness had narrowed his vision down to a dark tunnel; through that tunnel he would drag Bollux back to the Falcon, nothing less.
Suddenly another figure was at his side, a furred and sinuous Trianii Ranger, bearing a smoking blaster. Solo-Captain? It was a males voice. Come, I will aid you. We have but seconds.
Han let the other do so, both of them tugging the droids hulk along much more quickly. Dull curiosity made Han ask, Why?
Because my mate, Atuarre, said not to bother com-ing back without you, and because my cub, Pakka, would have come if I had not. The Trianii called out, Here, Ive found him!
Others arrived, to give supporting fire, throwing the Espos into a brief confusion. The assaulting troops, not having gotten their heavy blaster into the corridor yet, fell back. More willing hands dragged at Bollux.
Then, somehow, they were all standing at the air lock, and the Espos seemed to have broken off their attack. The droid was floated into the tunnel-tube, along with the other defenders and Atuarres mate. Only then did Han enter the air lock, leaving behind a strangely silent chamber. The iresher, thicker air of the tube hit him like a drug. He waved the rest on. The Millennium Falcon was still his ship, and he would be the one to east off.
Solo, wait! A man stumbled out of the smoke. Viceprex Hitken, looking a century older. He spoke with hysterical speed.
Solo, I know theyve moved the assault ship away from the lower lock. I told no one, not even my wi/e. I ordered the Espos back and came in by myself.
He shuffled closer, hands imploring. Han stared at the Vice-President for Corporate Security as if he were a specimen under a scope.
Please take me, Solel Do anything-anythlng-
anything to me, but dont leave me here to---
Hirkens handsome face jumped, as if hed forgotten what he was about to say, then he fell, squirming and reaching uselessly for the wound in his back. His obese wife came waddling up behind him with F..spos at her back and a smoking pistol in her hands.
Han had already hit the inner air-lock hatch closure. He dived through the outer, into the tunnel-tube, hit-ting that switch, too. As the outer air-lock hatch closed, he irised the tunnel-tube shut, released its seal with an outgushing of air, and unclamped the tube. He floated there, watching through a viewport as Hirkens wife and the Espos beat at the air locks outer-hatch view-port, unavailingly. Stars Ends descent speed had al-ready drawn it away, and it plunged deeper into the planets gravity well.
Around him he could see and hear the wobble of the tunnel-tube as packed prisoners were grad
ually absorbed into the assault craft and the Millennium Falcon.
Everyone in the two ships and the tunnel-tubes was so busy crowding elbow to pseudopod, or helping the injured or the dying, that only one survivor thought to watch the towers fall.
As his mother and Dec labored over the Falcons controls, conning the freighter under its extreme bur-den and maintaining tractor-grip on the junction sta-tion, Pakka hung from an overhead conduit in the cockpit, the only one with both an unoccupied mind and a vantage point.
The cub stared down at Stars Ends descent, the flawless trajectory of an airless world. And even the sudden, brilliant flash of its impact didnt distract the others, who had lives to worry about. But Pakka, un-bJinking, unspeaking, saw the symbol of Authority flare and die with the brevity of a meteor.
The wind pulled hard across the landing field on Urdur, a no-nonsense wind, chilling, biting, but fresh and free. The former inmates of Stars End, those who had lived to reach this latest outlaw-tech base, breathed it without complaint as they were herded off to tem-porary quarters.
But Hah still pulled his borrowed greatcoat tighter around him. Im not arguing, he argued. ! just dont understand, is all. He was addressing Doe, but Jessa was listening, as were Pakka, Atuarre, and her mate, Keeheen.
Nearby rested the Falcon, the tmnel-tube junction still clamped to her side, and the Espo assault craft. Dec had guided both stuffy, overcrowded ships into quick contact with essa, and theyd been directed to this latest hide-out world.
Chewbacca was still onboard the Falcon, surveying the damage done to her since the last time hed seen her. A new yaup of inconsolable sadness echoed from the ship each time he found another item of damage.
Dec, rather than reiterate his explanation, said, Youngster, check the droid out for yourself. There. Outtaw-techs were just offioading Bolluxs mutilated, beam-scorched form from the ship. An entire segment of his cranium had been shot away by Uul-Rha-Shan. At Docs order, his men brought over the repulser-lift handtruck with the droid strapped to it. With force bars and pinch-jacks, they prized open the plastron.