Star Wars_ Darksaber - Kevin J. Anderson [13]
“Get him up here,” Durga shouted.
“But, he asked not to be disturbed, sir,” the Devaronian said.
Durga gurgled in rage at the comment and punched a control button on his repulsorsled. Suddenly, the Devaronian technician’s chair erupted with electrical fire, deadly voltage arcing across the victim’s hands and arms, crawling up his spinal column and skittering around inside his skull. The alien’s skin blackened and burned. He opened his fanged mouth to scream, but only blue lightning came out.
In seconds the Devaronian slumped down, a skeletal corpse that steamed as flakes of ash fell onto the floor of the expeditionary ship.
“Now, would someone else like to get Bevel Lemelisk for me?” Durga boomed. “Before it’s too late?”
One of the human technicians leaped off his chair and ran to the turbolift.
General Sulamar snapped his fingers, and two Gamorrean guards came forward to remove the charred Devaronian body. Lightly tapping the singed skin to make sure that all of the electrical current had gone away, they whisked the crumbling body out of sight.
Despite his outburst, Durga knew they could never rouse the weapons engineer fast enough to do any good. With outrage and horror, he watched as the two gargantuan machines came together, considering each other to be prime sources of metallic wealth. Unthinking, they followed identical programming: (1) grapple target, (2) dismantle with laser cutters, and (3) process all raw materials.
The giant machines were mindlessly murderous, blasting each other’s hull plates, ripping metal arms and stuffing them into processing maws—an unconscionable disaster unfolding before Durga’s eyes.
The Mineral Exploiters were very efficient. It took less than ten standard minutes for them to rip each other to nonfunctional shreds, drifting hulks of torn-apart components and half-slagged molten ingots. The metal debris drifted apart, taking its own place in the asteroid field.
Durga felt fury boiling inside him, and he hammered his fists on the control panels. He looked around at his technicians, seeking someone worthless to blame—but all of them had leaped out of their booby-trapped seats and stood at attention beside their panels, safely away from their chairs.
CHAPTER 5
Bevel Lemelisk scowled as he trudged along the corridors of the Orko SkyMine ship, huffing with the effort and with his own annoyance at Durga’s constant demands. He stepped into the turbolift for the bridge deck, muttering to himself … things he would never dare say in front of the bloated Hutt crime lord. Durga always wanted the impossible and wanted it now.
The turbolift lurched, yanking Lemelisk upward. He stumbled against the wall, grabbed the railing, and frowned at the controls as if they had intentionally made him lose his balance.
Lemelisk patted his rounded paunch as his stomach growled. He had forgotten to eat midday meal again. He kept losing track of things. He brushed his cheeks, feeling the prickle of long, pale stubble, and realized he hadn’t shaved in two days cither. He sighed, chastising himself. He usually remembered to take care of personal hygiene before he appeared in front of Durga, but the insistent Gamorrean guard hadn’t given him a chance to collect his thoughts. Lemelisk ran a hand through his spiky white hair, making sure it stood up in straight shocks, just the way he preferred it—though he doubted the fat slug boss would ever notice a human’s appearance.
The turbolift stopped with a sudden jolt, but this time Lemelisk braced himself. Before the doors opened, he worked up his indignation. He hated to be disturbed while he was concentrating. He had left specific orders that no one was to barge into his chambers; but the rude guard had done just that, lumbering in when Lemelisk was completing final touches on a difficult three-dimensional crystal-lattice puzzle. All of Lemelisk’s plans had shimmered and dissolved, plunging him back to square zero.
This time, Bevel Lemelisk vowed he wouldn’t be meek and groveling. He strode onto the command deck, drawing in a deep