Star Wars_ The Han Solo Adventures - Brian Daley [174]
Confused, Hissal handed over the Brigian currency. Han showed them one of the duplicator’s components.
“This is the prototyper; you can program it for what you want or feed it as a sample. Like this.” He inserted a Brigian bill and punched several buttons. The prototyper whirred, lights blinked, and the original bill reappeared together with an identical copy. Han held it up to the light, eyeing the duplicate critically. Keek made choking sounds, comprehending now that the pilot was holding his planet’s entire monetary system hostage.
“Hmm. Not perfect,” Han noted, “but if you supplied the machine with local materials, it would work. And for different serial numbers on each bill you just program that into the machine. That consulting firm must’ve been a cut-rate operation; they didn’t even bother to set up a secure currency.” The New Regime had obviously been the victim of aggressive salesmanship. “Well, Keek, what do you—”
Keek had snapped the end off his scroll’s wooden core and pointed it directly at Han, who didn’t doubt for a second that he was looking down the barrel of a gun.
“Lay your pistol on that table, alien primate,” hissed Keek. “You will now have your automaton take the hand truck and he, you, and the traitor Hissal will precede me down the ramp.”
Han gave Bollux the order as he carefully put his blaster on the gameboard, knowing Keek would shoot him if he tried to warn Chewbacca. But as Keek reached to take possession of the blaster, Han inconspicuously touched the gameboard’s master control.
Miniature holo-monsters leaped into existence, weird creatures of a dozen worlds, spitting and striking, roaring and hopping. Keek jumped back in surprise, firing his scroll-weapon by reflex. A beam of orange energy crashed into the board, and the monsters evaporated into nothingness.
At the same instant Han, with a star-pilot’s reflexes, threw himself onto the security chief, catching hold of the hand holding the scroll-gun. He groped for his blaster with his free hand, but Keek’s shot had knocked it from the gameboard.
The security chief possessed incredible strength. Not stopped by the pilot’s desperate punches, Keek hurled him halfway across the compartment and brought his weapon around. Just then Hissal landed on his shoulders, making Keek stagger against the edge of the acceleration couch. The two Brigians struggled, their arms and legs intertwining like a confusion of snakes.
But Keek was stronger than the smaller Hissal. Bit by bit he brought his weapon around for a shot. Han got back into the fight with a side-on kick that knocked the scroll aside so that the charge meant for Hissal burned a deep hole in one of the safety cushions.
The scroll-gun was apparently spent, and Keek began to club Hissal with it. Han tried to clock him, but Keek knocked the pilot to the deck with stunning force, then turned to grapple with the other Brigian, their feet shuffling and kicking around the downed human. Unable to get around them and recover his blaster, Han tripped Keek. The inspector sank, taking Hissal with him.
Suddenly the scroll, which Keek had dropped, rolled into Han’s palm. As Keek was kneeling over the fallen Hissal, Han swung the scroll, connecting solidly with the security chief’s skull. Keek’s lank body shook with spasms and stiffened. Hissal merely pushed him, and the security chief toppled to the deck.
A roar came from behind them. Chewbacca, seeing his partner unharmed, was visibly relieved. “Where were you?” Han cried. “He just about put out my running lights!” Rubbing the bruises he had received, Han recovered his pistol.
Hissal, collapsed in an acceleration chair, tried to catch his breath. “This isn’t my usual line of endeavor, Captain. Thank you.”
“We’re sort of even,” Han replied with a laugh. Keek began