Star Wars_ Millennium Falcon - James Luceno [132]
He took a steadying breath. Then, fine-tuning the repulsorlift controls, he allowed the ship to come down hard on the starboard landing gear. Struck, the platform instantly leveled out, but when it did the Falcon's drooping mandible was walloped in turn, knocking out the already crippled maneuvering jets.
Again, the ship slammed down onto her port side, and the turbo-lift deck tipped in the same direction.
Jadak had just gotten to his feet when the Falcon's port mandible began to drop. Prepared for just such an eventuality, he raced for the ship and used the tilting motion of the lift to propel him up onto the blunt nose of the forward viewport, where he hung as if the cockpit had rammed into his midsection.
Han's expression was an amalgam of amazement, anger, and admiration.
“Can you release the mandible access hatch from the cockpit?” Jadak yelled with one cheek smooshed against the transparisteel.
Han all but crawled across the instrument panel to hear him better.
“Say again!”
“Spring the access hatch! I'll try to fix the jets!”
Han nodded, maneuvered back into the pilot's chair, and flipped a couple of switches mounted to the rear bulkhead. Jadak waited for Han's thumbs-up before dropping back to the tilted turbolift and allowing himself to slide beneath the belly of the ship. Arresting his motion at the forward landing gear, he clambered up onto the mandible, picked his way to the unlocked hatch, and disappeared inside.
Leia and Poste hadn't even tried to stand up, but they had taken advantage of the deck's brief fling with evenness to scramble to the illuminators that outlined the YT's saucer-shaped body. Leia had a perfect vantage on Allana and C-3PO, who was now supporting the girl with one arm.
Deep in the Force, Leia fed stamina to Poste and strength to Allana and support to Han, whose fear for Leia and Allana's safety was eroding his ability to stabilize the ship. Like Leia, he was desperate to keep Allana from harm. But buried deep under his anguish he was thinking of Jacen.
Calling to Jacen for help.
For the first time, Leia realized the full depths of Han's pain and grief. And she seized on the source of Han's turmoil.
“Child, listen to me,” she shouted to Allana. “Your father understood the beings who transformed this world. Long before you were born we were at war with them, but your father was a force for peace, and his powers were unmatched by those of any other Jedi. He wanted you to grow up in a galaxy free of war. He wanted to protect you at all costs. I want you to reach deep into yourself and find him. As painful as it is, you need to find your father. Stretch out with your feelings. Use the Force!”
Han tried to keep himself from worrying about Leia and Allana, but it was no use. Where only moments earlier his every action was a stroke of piloting genius, his hands were now fumbling with the repulsorlift and maneuvering jet controls. Another drop like the last one could send the Falcon over the edge, and probably take everyone with her.
Jadak was still inside the port mandible's maintenance nacelle, but whatever repair work he was doing had yet to show any effect.
Leia … Allana … Jacen …
And that was all it took.
Jadak's improvisation had borne results Han was unprepared for. The faulty pressors and jets came back online with enough vigor to seesaw the Falcon's starboard side down against the turbolift deck. The deck dropped, as well, so far and so forcefully that it tipped past level, nearly launching Jadak from the maintenance nacelle. Recovering from his oversight, Han rocked the ship to port, sending Jadak back into the mandible and at the same time succeeding in leveling the turbolift. Quickly then, Han set the Falcon down squarely on the now horizontal deck, which resumed a smooth descent into the