Star Wars_ Episode V_ The Empire Strikes Back - Donald F. Glut [46]
Solo concentrated intently on his flying. It was all he could do to avoid the barrage of flak bursts rocketing toward the Falcon from the Imperial ship. The freighter bobbed and weaved as Han, still heading directly for the Star Destroyer, steered to avoid the bolts.
No one on his tiny ship had the slightest idea what his plan might be.
'He's coming in too low!' the Imperial deck officer shouted, though he scarcely believed what he was seeing.
Captain Needa and the Star Destroyer crew rushed to the Avenger's bridge to watch the suicidal approach of the Millennium Falcon, while alarms blared all over the vast Imperial ship. A small freighter could not do much damage if it collided against a Star Destroyer's hull; but if it smashed through the bridge windows, the control deck would be littered with corpses.
The panicked tracking officer reported his sighting. 'We're going to collide!'
'Shields up?' Captain Needa asked. 'He must be insane!'
'Look out!' the deck officer yelled.
The Falcon was headed straight for the bridge window and the Avenger crew and officers fell to the floor in terror. But at the last instant, the freighter veered up sharply. Then-Captain Needa and his men slowly lifted their heads. All they saw outside the bridge windows was a peaceful ocean of stars.
'Track them,' Captain Needa ordered. 'They may come around for another pass.'
The tracking officer attempted to find the freighter on his scopes. But there was nothing to find.
'That's strange,' he muttered.
'What is it?' Needa asked, walking over to look at the tracking monitors for himself.
'The ship doesn't appear on any of our scopes.'
The captain was perplexed. 'It couldn't have disappeared. Could a ship that small have a cloaking device?'
'No, sir,' the deck officer answered. 'Maybe they went into light-speed at the last minute.'
Captain Needa felt his anger mounting at about the same rate as his befuddlement. 'Then why did they attack? They could have gone into hyperspace when they cleared the asteroid field.'
'Well, there's no trace of them, sir, no matter how they did it,' the tracking officer replied, still unable to locate the Millennium Falcon on his viewers. 'The only logical explanation is that they went into light-speed.'
The captain was staggered. How had that crate of a ship eluded him?
An aide approached. 'Sir, Lord Vader demands an update on the pursuit,' he reported. 'What should he be told?'
Needa braced himself. Letting the Millennium Falcon get away when it was so close was an unforgiveable error, and he knew he had to face Vader and report his failure. He felt resigned to whatever punishment waited in store for him.
'I am responsible for this,' he said. 'Get the shuttle ready. When we rendezvous with Lord Vader, I will apologize to him myself. Turn around and scan the area one more time.'
Then, like a living behemoth, the great Avenger slowly began to turn; but there was still no sign of the Millennium Falcon.
The two glowing balls hovered like alien fireflies above Luke's body lying motionless in the mud. Standing protectively next to his fallen master, a little barrel-shaped droid periodically extended a mechanical appendage to swat at the dancing objects as if they were mosquitoes. But the hovering balls of light leaped just out of the robot's reach.
Artoo Detoo leaned over Luke's inert body and whistled in an effort to revive him. But Luke, stunned unconscious by the charges of these energy balls, did not respond. The robot turned to Yoda, who was sitting calmly on a tree stump, and angrily began to beep and scold the little Jedi Master.
Getting no sympathy from him, Artoo turned back