Star Wars_ The Han Solo Adventures - Brian Daley [198]
Chewbacca howled in triumph, neutralizing one security circuit. “Got the other,” Han crowed. But their elation disappeared as they heard the thunder of mass-lift thrusters.
“She’s coming after us in the lighter!” Hasti yelled from the hatchway. “How soon can we lift off?”
“She’s too close with those heavy cannons,” Han rasped. “But at least we’ll have a diversion. Get clear!”
The others ran for it. There was a chart readout on the console; Han slipped it into his vest and, with one foot out the hatch, inserted a series of instructions into the console. Automatic sequence cycled the hatch shut, and the boat lifted off.
Han hurdled a rock and crouched in its shelter with the others, and they watched the spaceboat rise into the night sky. The lighter was already on a close interception course; it seemed to Han a good time to get as far as possible from the liftoff site. Having distracted those on the lighter, the fugitives moved off in a ragged line. Chewbacca kept rearguard and, wielding a clump of dry red shrubbery, eradicated the few prints they’d left on the rocky terrain.
The spaceboat picked up speed, following Han’s programming. The lighter’s heavy artillery spoke, and tremendous spears of green-white energy made a brief noon in the Dellaltian night. The first salvo missed but gave the gunners their registration. The second hit dead center, several beams converging on the small boat at once. It exploded in a fireball, leaving a few scraps of burning wreckage to flutter from the sky.
“Capturing us wasn’t such a big priority after all,” Badure observed.
They had barely reached the temporary shelter of a rocky outcropping and hidden themselves among the boulders when the lighter returned with a rumble of brute thrusters and settled in where the boat had lifted. In moments the area was swarming with armed searchers sweeping hand-held spots. The stunned guards were quickly discovered, the ground examined.
“They’re buying it!” Hasti whispered with muted elation. The searchers noted the prints left by Han and the others when they had approached the boat but missed any sign of departure, thanks to Chewbacca’s painstaking work. The dozing guards were lugged aboard the lighter and the rest of J’uoch’s employees embarked. Thrusters flared again.
Han’s mind was racing. Now that they were armed and J’uoch apparently believed them dead, they had a chance of retaking the Millennium Falcon. Han expected to see the lighter land next to his own ship, to take away the guards onboard. Instead, the larger vessel hovered above the freighter. The Falcon’s ramp was up, her ramp-bay doors closed. Han suddenly understood what was happening.
He threw himself forward at a flat-out run, bellowing at the top of his lungs, with Chewbacca only a step behind. No one on either ship heard them, of course; the lighter, its hoisting gear making loud contact with the freighter’s upper hull and achieving tractor-lock on the smaller ship, lowered her mechanical support booms. In the same manner as she transported mining equipment, the lighter lifted off with the Millennium Falcon tucked up tightly to her underside.
The lighter veered south, gathering speed and altitude as she went. Han slowed to a stop. In despair he and Chewbacca watched their ship being borne away across the lake and over the mountains beyond. The others caught up.
“They think the log-recorder disk is onboard, isn’t that it, Captain?” Skynx asked, somewhat in shock. “They searched us and didn’t find it and tried to kill us, so they must assume we left it onboard the Falcon.”
“Where are they headed?” Han asked tonelessly.
“Straight for the mining camp,” Badure answered. “They’ll have all the time and privacy they need to tear—to search her thoroughly.”
Han pivoted on his heel and walked off toward town. A drizzle was starting.
“Where are you going? Where are