Star Wars_ Episode V_ The Empire Strikes Back - Donald F. Glut [9]
It took all of Luke's remaining strength to drag himself a half meter before finally collapsing, sinking into the ever-deepening drifts. 'I can't...' he said, though no one could hear his words.
But someone, though still unseen, had heard.
'You must.' The words vibrated in Luke's mind. 'Luke, look at me!'
Luke could not ignore that command; the power of those softly spoken words was too great.
With a great effort, Luke lifted his head and saw what he thought was a hallucination. In front of him, apparently unaffected by the cold and still clad only in the shabby robes he had worn in the hot desert of Tatooine, stood Ben Kenobi.
Luke wanted to call out to him, but he was speechless.
The apparition spoke with the same gentle authority Ben had always used with the young man. 'You must survive, Luke.'
The young commander found the strength to move his lips again. 'I'm cold... so cold ...'
'You must go to the Dagobah system,' the spectral figure of Ben Kenobi instructed. 'You will learn from Yoda, the Jedi Master, the one who taught me.'
Luke listened, then reached to touch the ghostly figure. 'Ben ... Ben..." he groaned.
The figure remained unmoved by Luke's efforts to reach it. 'Luke,' it spoke again, 'you're our only hope.'
Our only hope.
Luke was confused. Yet before he could gather the strength to ask for an explanation, the figure began to fade. And when every trace of the apparition had passed from his sight, Luke thought he saw the approach of a Tauntaun with a human rider on its back. The snow-lizard was approaching, its gait unsteady. The rider was still too far away, too obscured by the storm for identification.
In desperation the young Rebel commander called out, 'Ben?!' before again dropping off into unconsciousness.
The snow-lizard was barely able to stand on its saurian hind legs when Han Solo reined it to a stop and dismounted.
Han looked with horror at the snow-covered, almost frozen form lying as if dead at his feet.
'Come on, buddy,' he appealed to Luke's inert figure, immediately forgetting his own nearly frozen body, 'you aren't dead yet. Give me a signal here.'
Han could detect no sign of life, and noticed that Luke's face, nearly covered with snow, was savagely torn. He rubbed at the youth's face, being careful not to touch the drying wounds. 'Don't do this, Luke. It's not your time.'
Finally a slight response. A low moan, barely audible over the winds, was strong enough to send a warm glow through Han's own shivering body. He grinned with relief. 'I knew you wouldn't leave me out here all alone! We've got to get you out of here.'
Knowing that Luke's salvation - and his own - lay in the speed of the Tauntaun, Han moved toward the beast, carrying the young warrior limply in his arms. But before he could drape the unconscious form over the animal's back, the snow-lizard gave an agonized roar, then fell into a shaggy gray heap on the snow. Laying his companion down, Han rushed to the side of the fallen creature. The Tauntaun made one final sound, not a roar or bellow but only a sickly rasp. Then the beast was silent.
Solo gripped the Tauntaun's hide, his numbed fingers searching for even the slightest indication of life. 'Deader than a Triton moon,' he said, knowing that Luke did not hear a word. 'We haven't got much time.'
Resting Luke's motionless form against the belly of the dead snow-lizard, Han proceeded to work. It might be something of a sacrilege, he mused, using a Jedi Knight's favorite weapon like this, but right now Luke's lightsaber was the most efficient and precise tool to cut through the thick skin of a Tauntaun.
At first the weapon felt strange in his hand, but momentarily he was cutting the animal's carcass from hairy head to scaly hind paws. Han winced at the foul odor that rose from the steaming incision. There were few things he