Star Wars_ Splinter of the Mind's Eye - Alan Dean Foster [47]
“A Governor? An Imperial Governor?” Halla was becoming visibly upset. Luke nodded. “An Imperial Governor’s after you two?” Another nod.
She spun in her seat, started the crawler’s engine. “This expedition is canceled, boy! Off! I’ve heard rumors of what the Governors can order done to ordinary citizens. I don’t want any part of it.”
“Stop it, Halla! Stop it!” Luke was wrestling with her for the controls. His greater strength finally prevailed and he shut the engine back down. “Artoo, don’t start up again unless I give permission.” A response beep sounded.
Halla gave up, slumped tiredly. “Leave it alone, boy. I’m an old woman, but I’ve still got some life left in me. I don’t want to throw it away. Not even for a chance at the crystal.”
“Halla, we have to find the crystal, and we have to do it before Grammel can catch us or this Governor or his representatives arrive on Mimban.”
“Grammel,” she muttered knowingly. “He must have recognized the significance of the splinter he took from you. He must have contacted this Essada.”
“He did,” admitted Luke, “but I’m not so sure he understands the worth of the crystal, or this Essada either. We can’t take that chance. We have to find it first, because if we’re captured, they’ll learn about it from us … no matter how hard we try to keep it a secret.”
“That’s so,” she admitted.
“And if we can’t escape with it,” Luke continued remorselessly, “we have to destroy it. It must not be allowed to come into Imperial possession.”
“Seven years, boy, seven years,” Halla muttered. “I can’t promise you that if we do find it, I’ll be ready to break it into dust.”
“All right,” Luke agreed. “Let’s say we don’t worry about that now. All that’s important is finding it before Grammel finds us.”
“A week to ten days,” she told him. “If the terrain doesn’t get too bad and we don’t run into trouble with the locals.”
“What locals?” The Princess wasn’t impressed. “You don’t mean those pitiful things we saw crawling and begging for a drink back in the town?”
“Some of the native races of Mimban haven’t been ruined by contact with human beings,” Halla told them. “They’re not all as degraded as the greenies. Some of them can, and will, fight. Keep in mind how little of this world has actually been explored. Nobody really has much idea what’s out there,” she waved toward the night, “beyond the immediate perimeter of the mine towns. Not the archeologists, not the anthropologists … no one.
“There are enough discoveries right by the towns to keep the small scientific station here plenty occupied, girl. They don’t have the time or the need to go tramping off into this muck looking for specimens. Not when the specimens wander into town.
“We’ll be going places no one’s had reason to go before, and we’ll likely encounter things no one’s met up with before. This is a thriving, healthy world. We’re a nice dollop of meat. I’ve seen visuals of some of the carnivores of Mimban. Their described methods of eating aren’t any prettier than they are.”
She turned back to Luke. “Look under the seat, boy.” Luke did so, found a compartment holding two blaster rifles and four pistols. “They’re all charged,” she informed him, “which is more than you can say for the ones you broke out with.”
Luke removed the two rifles, passed them to the Yuzzem who would be able to handle the bulky weapons easily. Then he handed a pistol to Leia, gave one to Halla, and kept the third for himself. The remaining one he left inside the compartment.
Hin began sighting along the rifle experimentally. On this model, the trigger guard was set close to the trigger itself. Too close for a thick Yuzzem finger. Hin used both hands, applied pressure in a certain way. After the guard snapped off, he tossed it over the side and thumbed the trigger with satisfaction.
Luke speculatively aimed his own pistol at a nearby bush. A touch of the firing stud and a brief flare of intense light dissolved the bush. Pleased with the new weapon, he slipped on the safety and attached it to his belt.
There was one more thing he had to do. Taking the