Star Wars_ The Han Solo Adventures - Brian Daley [196]
The spotty return fire, hasty and poorly aimed, never came close. But one guard, a leather-skinned creature with a horny carapace, blocked Bollux’s retreat. Blue Max beeped, and immediately the remote flashed out of the darkness, striking the creature from behind and knocking it over. Since the remote couldn’t operate at any great distance from the starship, Max gave the signal that sent it jetting back onboard.
The labor ’droid hurried after the others, bounding in long strides made possible by heavy-duty suspension. The group ran, bounded, and scuttled to the edge of the landing area. All the while Han raked the field behind them to keep J’uoch’s people pinned down. Then the carbine went silent.
“Drum’s empty,” he said. Off in the night he could hear J’uoch railing at her followers and calling for a comlink.
“She’s posting a guard on the ship and calling for reinforcements,” Badure announced. “We’d best lose ourselves in town for a while.”
The group descended through the city in an informal race, past shuttered shops and locked doors. No lights could be seen; the Dellaltians who had seemed so curious earlier wanted no part of this lethal dispute among offworlders. Leading the others, Han plunged into an alley, followed it to a market plaza, and hurried down a trellised side street that smelled of strange foods and fuels.
They came to a factory district. Pausing in the shadows, the humans and the Wookiee leaned against a wall and fought for breath while Bollux waited impassively and Skynx, with a superior respiratory system, checked his carrier cinches to make sure that none of his precious instruments had been damaged.
“You should’ve snagged a gun,” Han puffed, “instead of worrying about that one-man band of yours.”
“These have been making music in my family for a dozen generations,” Skynx replied indignantly. “And I’m sure I don’t know how I could’ve wrested a weapon away from some malodorous ruffian four times my size.”
Han gave up the argument and checked the nearby rooftops. “Can anybody spot a ladder or staircase? We have to see if they’re trailing us.”
“Now I can be of help there, I believe,” Skynx announced. A nearby pole supported fiber-optic cables for intown communications; wrapping himself around it, Skynx spiraled up the pole, protecting his instruments carefully. Since all the buildings were one-story affairs, he had a good view of the surrounding area.
Having reconnoitered, Skynx corkscrewed his way down the pole again. “There are search parties working their way down through town,” he told them. “They have hand-held spotlights; I assume them to be using comlinks.” He tried to hide his fearful quaking.
“Did you see their ship?” Han asked eagerly. “It must be around here somewhere. Perhaps we could pick up some fire power there.”
But Skynx hadn’t spotted it. They decided to try to skirt the search parties’ pattern and see if they couldn’t get back to the Millennium Falcon. Skynx’s feathery antennae wavered in the air, attentive to vibrations. “Captain, I hear something.”
They all held their breath and listened. A rumbling swelled until it shook the ground. “Looks like J’uoch got through on the comlink,” observed Badure over the tumult. An enormous vessel mounted with heavy guns was hovering above the landing area, its floodlights playing over the city. The fugitives pressed backs into the shadows.
The ponderous lighter couldn’t hover and search for long; instead she descended. “There’ll be more manpower onboard her,” Badure warned. “Skynx, shinny up and take a look. Be careful.”
The Ruurian went up a nearby line-pole and was down again almost at once. “The big ship must have dropped off parties down in the