Star Wars_ Tales of the Bounty Hunters - Kevin J. Anderson [87]
“Surrender,” boomed a voice out of the guard tower. “Surrender now, and you will not be harmed.”
The Wookiee slaves answered with angry, hopeless roars and kept fighting.
A sortie of heavily armed troopers spilled out of the tower’s main door. They drove the enraged Wookiees out into the open. Craning his neck to look up at the tower, the old Wookiee stared down a turbolaser’s muzzle.
A human in a black officer’s uniform stood beside it. “Send off a distress signal!” he screeched at an underling wearing khaki. “Get help—get Desnand—immediately!”
Chenlambec still stood groping inside the ventilator, utterly stymied. He could not disengage the gas dispenser; Flirt had not managed to trap Bossk; and his shoulder throbbed as if he had torn the rotator cuff trying to squeeze one more centimeter of length into his reach.
“They’re transmitting!” Tinian leaned against a throttle rod. The scout ship tilted. Chen braced himself to pull g’s standing up, but he did not pull his arm out of the ventilator.
He roared a question at Flirt.
“Easily,” Flirt chirped. “Hound likes jamming transmissions. He told me—”
“Have you got Bossk?” Tinian interrupted.
“Still working on it,” Flirt sang. “Leave me alo-one.”
“Forget jamming, then,” exclaimed Tinian. “We’ll—”
“Oops!” chirruped Flirt’s voice.
Chen snatched out his arm.
Flirt sounded sheepish. “We’ve got alarms going off all over the ship!”
Chen pounded the bulkhead, beyond frustration. There was nothing he could do now. Bossk would leap out of the locker and run to the bridge. Then Chen and Tinian would start breathing obah gas. He shouted at her to steer the Pup inland and prepare to eject. They’d be stranded but alive.
“They’ve still got six hundred Wookiees pinned down by that turbolaser,” exclaimed Tinian. “I could blow out the main gun before Bossk got us.” The Pup lurched as she positioned it to make another pass.
For such a small thing, she surprised him with her courage. Chen sank into his chair.
Another alarm? Startled, Bossk dropped his hydrospanner. “ExTen-Dee,” he shouted, “get over here!”
As the big droid rolled toward him, a white security light near the top of the locker blinked back on.
Bossk lunged for the locker’s edge. Energy sizzled around him. It threw him back inside with scorched scales and a bruised forehead.
“Deactivate that force lock!” he shouted.
X10-D rolled one more meter forward. He hesitated as if listening to another voice, and then swiveled in place. He made a full turn. Then another.
Then he returned to his spot near the bulkhead.
“Wait!” Flirt exclaimed.
“What?” Tinian held course. In five more seconds, she’d have that guard tower in range.
“I’ve got him!” cried Flirt. “The Hound just gave me security clear—”
“Don’t talk!” Tinian exclaimed. “Hold him!” The little droid must’ve finally hit the right code permutation. “Use ExTen-Dee to keep that locker secure!”
“I will!”
Tinian squeezed a firing stud as Chen put a Wookiee’s strength into the control yoke. An energy flash lit the Pup’s cabin.
“Yes!” Flirt squeaked. Then her voice dropped in pitch. She almost purred. “Hound, you are magnificent. You are wonderful. Full command recognition,” she reported to Chen and Tinian. “Hound,” she purred again, “double-seal that locker and keep ExTen-Dee on guard.”
Chen swooped several hundred meters skyward. Wookiees scattered out of the fresh crater dug by the guards’ turbolaser blast. Imperials stood along the fences, raining small arms fire on their maddened slaves.
The remaining turbolaser cannon tracked the Pup. Chenlambec jinked in all three dimensions, looping back. Closer … closer … Tinian held her breath …
He fired. The tower exploded in a hail of gleaming fragments.
Chenlambec pushed the throttle fully forward, toward open space and the Hound’s Tooth.
Tinian concentrated on breathing slowly. Just a little farther … just a little longer. If Bossk escaped, he’d gas them in an instant. Even a malfunction