Star Wars_ Millennium Falcon - James Luceno [21]
Taunt cut his gaze to the cockpit connector in time to see the copilot hurry into the ring corridor. Before he could lift himself out of the couch, a cry of surprise echoed forward.
“The buzz droids are activated! They're disabling the entire ship!”
Bammy Decree's face filled the engineering station's main display, his expression a mix of confusion and deep concern.
“Pistoeka sabotage droids? But how—”
“I bartered for them,” Taunt cut him off. From all directions came the sound of the droids chattering to one another and the Second Chance being taken apart. “I'll explain later, but right now we need to know how to deactivate them before they undo every system on the ship!”
“Did the deal include a control computer?”
“Yes, yes!”
“Then can't you just shut it down?”
“It is shut down! We never activated it.”
“Then how—”
“And the navigator's telling me that the droids are mainly reversing all the work you performed! Like they're trying to return the YT to factory specs. How can that be?”
“The work I did?” Decree fell silent for a moment, his jaw unhinging slightly. “Did anyone help you broker this deal?”
“The Koorivar—Masel. But what's that have to do with anything?” Taunt didn't bother to wait for a reply. “Is this because of some component you installed? Some aftermarket part? I warned you, Decree, no aftermarket parts!”
Decree squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them wide. “You've got to bring the Pistoeka control computer online. Instruct your engineer to have the computer task the droids with reverting to their standard programming.”
“Did you get that?” Taunt yelled over his shoulder.
“I'm on it,” the engineer told him.
Taunt returned his gaze to the display. “What else, Decree?”
“Then you've got to jettison them—every last one of them. Can you do that?”
“Can we do that?” Decree shouted to no one in particular.
“It'll take a while, but we can do it.”
Taunt expelled his breath. “Decree, this had better work. If not, there won't be a planet remote enough for you to hide on.”
Decree swallowed and nodded. “It'll work.”
“What do we do about the damaged systems? The kriffing droids have torched their way into nearly everything!”
“Have your engineer inventory the damage. I'll get hold of the parts you need and find someone with a fast ship. I'll repair everything personally.”
“Get started on gathering parts. I'll contact Nar Shaddaa and set you up with a ship.”
Decree looked sheepish. “I, I—”
“Save it,” Taunt said, and ended the communication.
Big hands shaking, he stood to his full height. He would have to come up with an explanation for the Vigo, as well as credits enough to pay for the eopie meat and the cost of the trip. The fiasco. He wasn't sure just how long he had been standing at the engineering station when Heet hurried into his peripheral view.
“The droids are shut down. Naath is below, getting ready to jettison them. But they did a lot of damage, boss. Comms up and running, but we've only got the sublight drive.”
Taunt nodded absently. “Help is coming. Have a list prepared of everything needed to repair the hyperdrive.”
“Will do.”
Heet no sooner moved off than the voice of the pilot rang out from the cockpit. “Boss! You'd better get in here. We've got a serious problem on our hands.”
Taunt whirled from the engineering station and thundered through the connector into the cockpit, nearly slamming his head on the hatch's low head jamb. The pilot indicated two glinting shapes in the center of the viewport.
“Imperial Navy. One of the older Acclamator-class assault ships, with a Destroyer escort.” The pilot looked at him. “Do you think they've had their eye on the Colicoids? Could they have observed the deal go down?”
Taunt worked his jaw. “Even if they did, they're not going to find any evidence of it.”
The pilot touched the earphones of his headset. “They're comming us. They want us to power down and submit to an inspection.” He glanced at the viewport. “The escort's vectoring for intercept.”
Heet squeezed into the cockpit behind Taunt. “The droids are