Enemy Lines II_ Rebel Stand - Aaron Allston [69]
Han guided the Falcon north over the base, swooping down once, just long enough to lower the boarding ramp and give C-3PO time to hurry aboard. Then Han kicked the thrusters in and headed northwest, the direction with the nearest heavy stand of forest. As he neared the leading edge of old-growth trees, some of which reached to the height of twenty-story buildings, he rotated the Falcon until the ship was perpendicular. The Falcon slid into the forest like a vibroknife into blue butter. The pursuing Headhunters broke off pursuit, scattering, climbing above the treetops to look for the Falcon from an altitude. After a few hundred more meters of nerve-jangling maneuvering through the trees, Han tilted the transport back onto her belly and settled down in a shadowy glade.
“If I may ask, sir,” said C-3PO as he desperately clung to the restraining straps on his seat, “why do we not just go into space?”
“Because someone was aboard the Falcon,” Han snapped. “And do you know what happens every time someone I don’t like comes aboard?”
“No, sir.”
“They sabotage something! Usually the shields, or especially the hyperdrive motivator. I hate that. Leia, take over at the controls while I see what they did.”
“Yes, Captain. Right away, Captain.” Leia trotted into the cockpit, took the pilot’s seat as Han vacated it, gave him a kiss as they made the transfer. “You know we’re only going to have a few minutes here before they find us and bring in the heavy guns.”
“Then let’s hope I’m as good as mechanic as I know I am.”
“Anything I can do while we’re waiting?”
“Get on the comm board and see if you can find their comm traffic. That may give us an idea of how much time we really have.”
“I’m also going to put in a call to our smuggler contacts. Let them know we have to leave in a hurry.”
“Very polite of you. Very proper.”
“Oh, shut up.”
Han didn’t take long to find it. The hyperdrive motivator had indeed been sabotaged. Someone had installed a simple fuse that would hold up to a system check but would blow the first time real power surged through the system. In the hyperdrive motivator compartment, the saboteur had also wired a tracking device. Han rerouted the hyperdrive power the way it was supposed to be, then threw the tracking device out an airlock.
He returned at a run to the cockpit and slid into the pilot’s chair as Leia, still in her comm unit privacy headset, vacated it and took her own seat.
They watched as, in the distance ahead and to port, a long-nosed flying vehicle edged through the trees. “What is that?” Han asked. “Vong, or local make?”
“Can’t make it out,” Leia said.
“Well, let’s just outfly it and identify it later.” Han powered up the repulsorlifts and stood the Millennium Falcon on her stern. He heard noises of unhappiness from C-3PO and a wild squeal of dismay from R2-D2. As he accelerated up through the treetops, he grinned over at Leia. “Forgot to tell them we were taking off.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Leia, you have to admit, that was fun.”
“Fun. Getting kidnapped, jailed, threatened with torture, shot at—fun.”
“That’s right.”
Leia felt her face twist into a smile she had no control over. “All right, all right. Despite everything, it was fun.”
“Welcome back, Princess.”
ELEVEN
Borleias
Tam awoke in a hospital ward bed.
Again.
He didn’t like doing that. It was happening too often.
This time, his left shoulder ached, and he remembered how it got that way. The first time a member of the medical staff walked past the foot of his bed, he motioned the man over and said, “Can I get a message to someone?”
“Let me get someone for you first,” the man said.
Minutes later, visitors appeared from beyond the blue curtains to one side. Tarc barged right up to stand beside Tam. Wolam was content to stand at the foot of the bed, smiling. And Intelligence head Iella Wessiri positioned herself between them.
“Which arm hurts?” Tarc asked.
“No, no,