Star Wars_ Shatterpoint - Matthew Woodring Stover [126]
Mace said, "Nick."
"They're dead," the young Korun said thickly. "They're both dead. Not a mark on them. And-"
"Nick, come out of there."
Nick prodded one's head with his finger... which gave, deforming spongily, as though the man's skull were soft foam. "And they're squishy..."
"We have to leave this place. Now."
"What could do that to a man?"
"Concussion," Mace said. "Shock transmission. This room must be part of a solid structure that reaches to the surface-"
"You're saying..." Nick looked at the walls around him with widening eyes. "You saying if another DOKAW hits the same spot, while I'm still in here-"
"I'm saying-" Mace urgently extended a hand,"-cover your ears and jump."
Mace took his own advice then drew on the Force to suspend them both, and the air in the comm cave pounded them like they were caught in the palm of a giant's handclap. He let the shock send them whirling back along the passage away from the comm center, them released his Force-hold and rolled to his feet.
Nick was saying something as Mace pulled him upright, but Mace heard only a distant mutter over the high singing whine in his ears. "You'll have to speak up."
Nick cupped one hand to his ear. "What?"
"Speak upl"
"What? You'll have to speak up!"
Mace sighed and shoved Nick stumbling along the corridor; he turned, reaching into the Force as he extended a hand, and the sub-space unit floated out the doorway, down the passage and into his arms.
He jogged after Nick while their stunned eardrums recovered, i Three minutes' scramble brought them to a a nexus of intersecting passageways, some cut, some natural. "This will have to do."
"Do for what? What's left?" Nick sagged against the wall, panting. "And what are you lugging that fraggin' thing around for?"
Mace set the comm unit on the passage floor. He pulled off his improvised dust-mask and frowned at the rear access panel; fasteners unscrewed themselves and floated to a neat little pile in a dimple in the rock, joined shortly by the access panel itself. Mace examined the leads and contacts inside the unit for a moment, then nodded.
He opened his hand and his lightsaber jumped to it from its pocket inside his vest. A flick of the Force tripped the handgrip's secret interior latch; a curved section of the grip popped open, and Mace pulled out the power cell. Another flick of the Force bent a pair of lead-panels inside the comm unit's guts. Mace wedged the powercell between them, and the unit's ready-lights came on.
"Hold this here," Mace said. Nick held the energy cell in place while Mace keyed the HallecKs emergency channel.
"Halleck, this is General Windu. This is a priority clear-call, intiation code oh six one five. Acknowledge."
The comm unit crackled to life in a burst of ECM static. A stolid voice came faintly through the buzz: "Response... one nine."
"Verification seven seven."
"Go a... General."
"Captain Trent, I need your status."
"Regret to in... Cap... bridge crew... ously wounded. This is Commander Urhal... der heavy... Repeat: We are under heavy DSF attack."
Nick frowned. "DSF?"
"Droid starfighter." Mace keyed the transmitter. "Can you hold?"
"... gative. Too many... sustained heavy... shields and armor, but..."
Through the bursts of static and washes of white hiss, the acting captain of the Halleck sketched their situation: An unknown number of Trade Federation droid starfighters had been lying in wait, deactivated and drifting outside the system's ecliptic plane amid cometary dust and debris of ancient asteroids. The commander guessed that it was something about the lander itself that had triggered them; they had attacked as soon as the extraction lander un-docked and made for orbit. The lander had been lost with all hands, and the DSFs had quickly overwhelmed the Halleck's