Star Wars_ Millennium Falcon - James Luceno [113]
“Yeah?”
“At the first attempt to employ the sublight engine or hyperdrive, the ship will automatically enter a default mode, during which it can only be made to return to the place from which it was launched. No amount of slicing or work-arounds can overcome this security feature, which relies on scans of the owner's retinas and palm-print identification by the instrument panel steering yoke.”
It took a moment for Poste to realize that he was neither surprised nor disappointed. In fact, the slicer droid's pronouncement came as a relief. Nothing to do now but wait for Jadak's meeting with the Solos to wind up, then—
Sounds of some sort made him swivel the chair toward the cockpit hatch.
“Two beings have boarded the ship,” the slicer droid said. “They are speaking Basic to each other in low tones.”
Poste wasn't half out of the pilot's chair when a blaster poked through the hatch and the hulking human who was holding it all but wriggled into the cockpit, drawing himself up to his full height between the pair of rear seats.
“Stay right where you are, kid.”
A Nautolan entered behind the human. “Well, if it isn't the hotshot from Nar Shaddaa,” he said, showing filed teeth as he grinned. “The one who put a couple of bolts into the repulsorlift of our air-speeder.”
“And he brought us a present,” the human said, gesturing to the slicer droid.
Without lowering the blaster, the human turned slightly to his partner. “Cynner, take the kid into the main hold and secure him to something.” He motioned with the weapon. “Up—and lay that toy blaster you're carrying on the seat.”
Poste rose, thinking about how good he was getting at following instructions. Setting the blaster down, he squirmed past the human and stepped into the cockpit connector, where the Nautolan was waiting for him. He considered asking his captors who they worked for, but decided he was better off not knowing.
The protocol droid was just where he had left him, motionless at the intersection of the ring corridor and the main hold. The Nautolan shoved him gently in the direction of a hologame table that occupied the front part of the space. While the head-tailed goon looked around for something to use to bind him, Poste reached a decision of his own. The boarding ramp was still lowered. There would be no getting to it with both the Nautolan and the protocol droid standing where they were. But according to a sketch Jadak had made of how he imagined the interior of the Millennium Falcon was laid out, the corridor was circular, and he might be able to make it to the boarding ramp by coming around from the stern. It required trusting that the Nautolan wasn't familiar with the layout, and that he would chase him, but Poste saw no other way out.
He waited for Cynner's gaze to shift, then bolted for the port arc of the corridor.
“Remata, he's making a break for it!” Cynner called out.
But what mattered was that he was in pursuit.
Hearing the call, Remata barreled through the cockpit connector, nearly knocking the deactivated protocol droid off its feet as he entered the main hold. Listening for a moment, he said, “Idiot,” and raced into the starboard-side ring corridor.
Poste banged his way to the stern of the ship, past the Falcon's hyperdrive and the escape pod accessway, his eyes scanning the deck for the maintenance hatch Jadak had included in the sketch. He was three-quarters of the way around the corridor when he spotted it, opposite and just aft of the ship's small galley. Wedging his fingers into the section of grated decking, he lifted it clear and threw himself down the hatch, resetting the grating as best he could.
A moment later Cynner rounded the port bend, only to run straight into Remata, who had arrived from the opposite direction.
“Where is he?” Remata asked.
“He sure didn't come by me.”
They searched the escape pod accessway.
Remata glanced up the port-side corridor. “Could he have ducked into one of the cabin spaces?”
“I'll check.”
Cynner had no sooner set out than Remata spied the hatch's ill-fitted