Star Wars_ Cloak of Deception - James Luceno [35]
All at once it was over.
New sounds filled the air: the pinging of cooling metal, the hiss of punctured pipes, the boisterous calls of frightened birds, the tattoo of falling limbs, fruits, and whatever else, striking the hull. Coughs, whimpers, moans …
Gravity told Cohl that they were still upside down. He unclipped his harness and allowed himself to drop to the ceiling of the shuttle. Rella and Boiny were already there, bruised and bleeding, but regaining consciousness even as Cohl went to them. He put an arm under Rella’s shoulders and took a quick look around.
The rest of the crew were surely dead, or dying. Satisfied that Rella would be all right, Cohl sprang the portside hatch. Moisture-saturated heat rushed in on everyone, but blessed oxygen, as well. Cohl bellied outside and immediately consulted his comlink’s compass display. Unaccustomed to standard gravity, he felt twice his weight. Every motion was laborious.
“Did Jalan make it?” Rella asked weakly.
The human answered for himself. “Barely.”
Cohl squirmed back inside. Jalan was hopelessly wedged beneath the console. He placed a hand on Jalan’s shoulder. “We can’t take you with us,” he said quietly.
Jalan nodded. “Then let me take a few of them with me, Captain.”
Rella crawled over to Jalan. “You don’t have to do this,” she started to say.
“I’m most-wanted in three systems,” he cut her off. “If they find me alive, they’re only going to make me wish I was dead anyway.”
Boiny looked at Cohl, who nodded.
“Give him the destruct code. Rella, separate the ingots into four equal allotments. Put two allotments in my pack, one in yours, and one in Boiny’s.” He glanced back at Boiny. “Weapons and aurodium only. No need for food or water, because if we don’t make it to the base, Dorvalla Penal will be providing all of that for us. If that isn’t inspiration enough for you, I don’t know what to tell you.”
Moments later the three of them exited the ship.
Cohl shouldered his weighty pack, took a final compass reading, and set off toward a nearby tor at a resolute clip. Rella and Boiny kept up as best they could, climbing steadily under thick canopy for the first quarter hour while the picket ship made pass after pass in search of some sign of them. From the high ground, at the base of the lommite cliff, they could see the picket ship hovering over the treetops.
Rella grimaced. “He found the shuttle.”
“Unlucky for him,” Cohl said.
No sooner had the words left Cohl’s mouth than an explosion ripped from the forest floor, catching the picket ship unawares. The pilot managed to evade the roiling fireball, but the damage had already been done. Engines slagged, the fighter listed to port and dropped like a stone.
A second picket ship roared overhead, just as the first was exploding. A third followed, angling directly for the base of the tor where Cohl and the others were concealed.
The picket poured fire at the tor, blowing boulder-size chunks of lommite from the cliff face. Cohl watched the ship complete its turn and set itself on course for a second run. As it approached, a deeper, more dangerous sound rolled through the humid air. Without warning, crimson energy lanced from the underbelly of the clouds, clipping the picket’s wings in midflight. Unable to maneuver, the fighter flew nose first into the cliff face and came apart.
“That’s another one we won’t have to worry about,” Cohl said, loud enough to be heard over the roar in the sky.
Rella raised her head in time to see a large ship tear overhead.
“The Hawk-Bat!” She glanced at Cohl in surprise. “You knew. You knew she would be down here.”
He shook his head. “The contingency plan called for her to be here. But I didn’t know for sure.”
She almost smiled. “You may get that pardon yet.”
“Save it for when we’re safely aboard.”
The three of them scampered to their feet and began a hurried descent of a scree field skirting the cliff face. Not far away,