Star Wars_ Episode VI_ Return of the Jedi - James Kahn [21]
The deck gun blasted the tilting skiff once more, shaking out virtually everything that remained inside except Chewbacca. Desperately holding on with his injured arm, he was stretching over the rail, grasping the ankle of the dangling Solo, who was, in turn, sightlessly reaching down for the terrified Calrissian. Lando had managed to stop his slippage by lying very still. Now, every time he reached up for Solo’s outstretched arm, the loose sand slid him a fraction closer to the hungry hole. He sure hoped Solo wasn’t still holding that silly business back on Bespin against him.
Chewie barked another direction at Han.
“Yeah, I know, I can see a lot better now—it must be all the blood rushing to my head.”
“Great,” Lando called up. “Now could you just grow a few inches taller?”
The deck gunners on the barge were lining up this human chain in their sights for the coup de grace, when Luke stepped in front of them, laughing like a pirate king. He lit his lightsaber before they could squeeze off a shot; a moment later they were smoking corpses.
A company of guards suddenly rushed up the steps from the lower decks, firing. One of the blasts shot Luke’s lightsaber from his hand. He ran down the deck, but was quickly surrounded. Two of the soldiers manned the deck gun again. Luke looked at his hand; the mechanism was exposed—the complex steel-and-circuit construction that replaced his real hand, which Vader had cut off in their last encounter.
He flexed the mechanism; it still worked.
The deck gunners fired at the skiff below. It hit to the side of the small boat. The shock wave almost knocked Chewie loose, but in tipping the boat further, Han was able to grab onto Lando’s wrist.
“Pull!” Solo yelled at the Wookiee.
“I’m caught!” screamed Calrissian. He looked down in panic to see one of the Sarlacc’s tentacles slowly wrap around his ankle. Talk about a wild card—they kept changing the rules every five minutes in this game. Tentacles! What kind of odds was anybody gonna give on tentacles? Very long, he decided with a fatalistic grunt; long, and sticky.
The deck gunners realigned their sights for the final kill, but it was all over for them before they could fire—Leia had commandeered the second deck gun, at the other end of the ship. With her first shot she blasted the rigging that stood between the two deck guns. With her second shot she wiped out the first deck gun.
The explosions rocked the great barge, momentarily distracting the five guards who surrounded Luke. In that moment he reached out his hand, and the lightsaber, lying on the deck ten feet away, flew into it. He leaped straight up as two guards fired at him—their laser bolts killed each other. He ignited his blade in the air and, swinging it as he came down, mortally wounded the others.
He yelled to Leia across the deck. “Point it down!”
She tilted the second deck gun into the deck and nodded to Threepio at the rail.
Artoo, beside him, beeped wildly.
“I can’t, Artoo!” Threepio cried. “It’s too far to jump … aaahhh!”
Artoo butted the golden droid over the edge, and then stepped off himself, tumbling head over wheels toward the sand.
Meanwhile, the tug-of-war was continuing between the Sarlacc and Solo, with Baron Calrissian as the rope and the prize. Chewbacca held Han’s leg, braced himself on the rail, and succeeded in pulling a laser pistol out of the wreckage with his other hand. He aimed the gun toward Lando, then lowered it, barking his concern.
“He’s right!” Lando called out. “It’s too far!”
Solo looked up. “Chewie, give me the gun.”
Chewbacca gave it to him. He took it with one hand, still holding on to Lando with the other.
“Now, wait a second, pal,” Lando protested, “I thought you were blind.”
“I’m better, trust me,” Solo assured him.
“Do I have a choice? Hey! A little higher, please.” He lowered his head.
Han squinted … pulled the trigger … and