Star Wars_ Rebel Force 04_ Firefight - Alex Wheeler [20]
But Trever was the one who'd died.
The Empire had taken his mother, his stepfather, everyone he'd ever known or cared about. Not to mention Ry-Gaul, Solace, Garen Muln…all the names and faces he'd forced himself to forget. And Div had learned his lesson. You did what you needed to do to survive. Even if it meant keeping your head down and your mouth shut.
"How about you lower that blaster?" he suggested to Han.
"How about I put a hole in you before you put one in me?" Han shot back.
"You want to shoot me, shoot me," Div said, thinking, Good luck with that. Han's reflexes were fast; that was clear enough. But he was no match for Div. "All I care about is escaping this planet in one piece."
"So you can kill us in space?" Luke said snidely.
Div shrugged. "May the best pilot win, right? But we'll never know who that is until we're back up there. So how about no one blasts anyone until that happens? Deal?" He lowered his blaster. Someone had to go first.
"I don't make deals with men who try to kill me," Han growled. "It's a quick way to end up dead." But he lowered his blaster, too. He jerked his head at Luke. "Come on, kid.
Let's go find ourselves a ship."
Div watched them file out of the laboratory, the tiny astromech droid wheeling dutifully behind. Han paused in the doorway, glaring at Div. "Well?" he drawled. "What are you waiting for?"
Han waited impatiently as R2-D2 probed the research station's computer system.
"Take your time," he said sarcastically after several minutes had elapsed. "It's not like we're in any danger."
But the little astromech droid kept working with his manipulator arm plugged into the socket, softly whirring as he sifted through the reams of data. They had concluded that the computer was the best place to start. Rather than wandering randomly through the station, hoping luck would show them the way, they had decided to leave their fate up to R2-D2's data-crunching skills.
At least, Luke had decided. When it came to a choice between trusting his gut and trusting a droid, Han chose his gut, each and every time. Even though their mission had gone astray, Luke was still in charge. And Han had to admit that a map would come in handy. If the scrap-head could find one.
With a triumphant trill of beeps and whistles, R2-D2 drew them over to the computer screen. A detailed schematic of the research station spread across it, two docking bays clearly marked on opposite ends of the building.
"Good job, Artoo!" Luke said, patting the astromech's silver-plated head.
"That's some droid," the enemy pilot said.
Han glared at him. He'd agreed to let the man come along on their search for ships—
no doubt an extra blaster could come in handy—but that didn't make them allies. The temporary truce didn't extend to polite small talk.
"Let's go," Han said gruffly. "We'll find ourselves a ship while the droid deals with the security system." A ship would do them no good if they couldn't disable the tractor beam that had dragged them to the surface to begin with.
"You want to leave Artoo behind? " Luke asked.
Chewbacca growled his own hesitation at the idea.
Luke shook his head. "I don't—"
"What are you worried about?" Han cut in. They couldn't waste any more time; the longer they stuck around, the shorter their lives were likely to be. "You think that… whatever you want to call it would eat a rusty bucket of bolts when there's so much fresh meat wandering around? He'll be fine."
"He's probably right," the enemy pilot said. "From what I could tell of the creature, organic-based nutrients seem to be—"
"Let's go," Han said shortly, shooting the pilot a nasty look. As if he needed the man's help to convince Luke of the obvious. "Sooner we go, sooner we can come back for him."
"He's right, you'll be fine," Luke told R2-D2, sounding unconvinced. "You sure you can disable that security system?"
The droid beeped confidently.
Luke still looked worried. "We'll come back for you, Artoo. I promise."
Han cleared his throat. "Enough with the tearful good-byes, kid."
"Let's