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The wind was already picking up across the sand dunes as Riij set the transport ship awkwardly down at the edge of the makeshift tunnel leading to the Strike Cruiser. “How long have we got?” Shada asked, shouting to be heard over the wind as the three of them half walked, half slid their way down the sand to the hatchway.

“Not long,” Riij called back. “Half an hour. Maybe less.”

Shada nodded back, keying the panel open and stepping inside. On the deck just inside the hatchway lay the segment of the Hammertong they’d removed, its loadlifters still attached. Across the huge empty room Deefour was warbling to himself as he poked around the rest of the huge cylinder, searching for any last-minute bits of data he could add to his extensive technical readout of the device. There was no sign of Cai. “Cai?” Shada called. “Da mala ci tri sor kehai.”

“Sha ma ti,” Cai replied, emerging from hiding behind one of the support struts and holstering her blaster. “I was starting to think you weren’t going to make it back in time.”

“We may not have,” Shada said grimly. “We’ve got another sandstorm breathing down our necks. There’s a transport outside—you and Karoly get that Hammertong segment aboard.”

“Right,” Cai said. “Karoly? Grab the lifts on that end.”

Together they got the Hammertong segment off the floor and out the hatchway as Shada went forward to the Strike Cruiser’s cockpit. As it had before, the flying sand was interfering with the sensors, and she had to adjust the fine-tuning several times before she was able to get a good view. As far as she could tell, there were no longer any Star Destroyers over Tatooine. They must have assumed their escaped prisoners had already made it offplanet. Keying off, she headed back to where Riij was crouched beside the end of the Hammertong cylinder, his face pressed close to one of the openings. “So there it is,” she said. “What do you think?”

He looked up at her, his face pasty-white. “Do you know what you have here?” he whispered. “Do you have any idea?”

“Not really,” she said warily. “Do you?”

“Look here,” he said, pointing to a plate. “See? ‘D.S. Mark Two. Module Seven, Prototype B. Eloy/Lemelisk.’ ”

“I see it,” Shada said. “What does it mean?”

Riij straightened up. “It means this is part of the prototype superlaser for the Death Star.”

Shada stared at him, a shiver running up her back. “What’s a Death Star?”

“The Emperor’s latest grab for power. Like nothing you’ve ever seen.” Riij looked back along the Hammertong’s length. “And we’ve got a piece here of its main weapon.”

“A piece?” Shada frowned, following his gaze. A solid two hundred meters of laser—“You mean this isn’t all of it?”

“I don’t think so,” Riij said. “Module Seven, remember?” He looked at Shada sharply. “I’ve got to have that piece you cut off. It’s absolutely vital.”

“Forget it,” Shada said. “If this really is a weapon, my people can find a better use for it than you can.”

“We’ll pay you anything you want.”

“I said forget it,” Shada said again, brushing past him. Cai was going to need help—

And abruptly, she was spun back around by a hand on her arm. Reflexively, she reached up to break his grip——

She froze, staring at the blaster that had appeared from nowhere in Riij’s hand. “Is this how you keep your bargains?” she demanded.

“You have to let us have it,” he said, his voice low. “Please. We need to know everything we can about the Death Star.”

“Why?”

He swallowed hard. “Because we’re likely to be its first target.”

Shada stared at him. Tatooine was going to be the first target? Ridiculous.

And then, suddenly, it fell into place. “You’re with the Rebel Alliance, aren’t you?”

He nodded. “Yes.”

Shada focused on the blaster in his hand. “And this thing is important enough to you to kill me in cold blood?”

He took a deep breath, let it out in a hissing sigh. “No,” he conceded. “Not really.”

“I didn’t think so,” Shada said. “Mish kom.”

And in the blink of an eye, it was all over. Cai, coming in from behind the Hammertong,