Star Wars_ Millennium Falcon - James Luceno [77]
“We've got to get these animals into the Falcon,” someone shouted in my face.
I must have returned a confused look, because he repeated the statement at even higher volume.
I shook my head to clear it and tried to point out that the Falcon wasn't large enough to accommodate even a third of the animals—and that would include using the living quarters of the ship as well as the cargo areas.
“Then you'll just have to make three trips,” said the Ryn who often served as my copilot.
“Three trips to where?” I asked in a voice that sounded too high-pitched to be my own.
“Back to Delphon,” I was told.
Everyone began shouting at once, filling my ears with statements I already knew.
We had to do this for the sake of the animals. We couldn't abandon them on Regosh to become prey. The large animals could fend for themselves, but the small ones had to be rescued. Only the Falcon was fast enough to accomplish the task. Only I had the skill to plot and execute the microjumps that would be necessary. Meanwhile, the rest of them would remain on the moon and hold the predators at bay.
With that I stepped aside to make room for the handlers, who immediately set themselves to the task of herding animals into the Falcon. How I wished the pirates had left us with at least enough Taanabian straw to cover the ship's deck plates, but all the feed and grain had disappeared with the Haor Chall lander. When I could finally move, I raced into the ship to enable the oxygen generators and inertial dampers belowdecks and set the air scrubbers on maximum. But my nose already told me that there was simply no way the scrubbers were going to overcome the stench produced by nervous snow lizards and other cameloids. In fact, I began to doubt that the Falcon would ever smell the same again.
Then, just when it seemed that matters couldn't get any worse, Snowmass somehow got it into his flat-faced head that the Falcon was actually ingesting the small animals and decided to come to their rescue. I don't know that there's ever been another instance of an albino rancor attacking a YT-1300 freighter, but that was exactly what happened, and the only way I could prevent the ship from being pummeled flat and pitted by corrosive drool was to engage the repulsorlifts and dance the Falcon out of Snowmass's considerable reach while his handlers tried to calm him down. I don't know precisely how long the dance went on, but by the end of it many of the animals were shipsick and adding to the mounting miasma by retching and emitting other noxious odors.
In all the confusion I had completely lost sight of Sari, though I suspected she had fled to her confined cabin in the passenger ship. So perhaps you can imagine my surprise when I exited the Falcon's cockpit connector to find her seated cross-legged on the now filthy deck of the main hold, her evening dress torn beyond repair, face smudged with unidentifiable substances, and makeup in disarray. When I saw that she was crying softly I hastened to her side, babbling apologies for everything I could think of, including the pirate attack.
She gazed up at me for a long moment before wiping the tears from under her eyes and laughing. “You are a fool,” she told me, “even when you're not acting the part.”
I started to stammer a reply, but she cut me off.
“Why do you think I'm with the circus—for the applause? For the few credits we earn?” She gestured broadly to the stinking snow lizards and eopies crowded around her. “I love animals, Purn. And I think that after we get all of them back to Delphon, I'm going to be in love with you.”
“It actually took my Ryn copilot and I four trips to transport all the animals back to Delphon,” Purn continued. “But thanks to the Falcon, we made the microjump round trips in what had to be record time, and in the end we lost only twelve animals to Regosh's predators.”
“What about the big animals?” Allana asked, on the edge of her chair.