Star Wars_ The Han Solo Adventures - Brian Daley [246]
The Falcon’s external speakers whooped and wailed with emergency sirens and klaxons. Her visual warning systems and running lights were flashing at maximum luminescence. Bystanders would have difficulty seeing and hearing, much less interfering.
The ramp dropped and Han and Gallandro ran down, blasters ready, equipment and tools weighting them. Behind followed Badure, Hasti, and Skynx. The girl objected, “Are you sure there isn’t some other way to do this?” Han had to read her lips, unable to hear her in the din.
He shook his head. Chewbacca had to stay at the controls, both because he knew the ship and because Han trusted only the Wookiee with care of the Falcon. Bollux stayed behind as well to keep a photoreceptor on instrumentation the first mate couldn’t spare time to monitor. Han wanted at least two people to hold the main door, Hasti and Badure. He and Gallandro would do the searching, taking Skynx along to translate.
The area seemed fairly secure; the Dellaltians had no way to cope with an armed starship. Han waved to his partner in the cockpit, and though he couldn’t be heard, added, “Fire, Chewie!”
From the Falcon’s top and belly turrets shot lines of red annihilation, playing on the closed door of the treasure vault. Smoke obscured the door in seconds as the quad-guns traced incandescent lines across it. Red cannonfire pitted and burned through material that had withstood generations of time and weathering, cutting glowing gashes in it. No weapon of its time could have penetrated it so easily, but in moments the door had been breached, pieces of it falling away. The reports of the gunfire added to the tremendous noise level.
Han signaled again and Chewbacca ceased fire. Smoke billowed away on the chill wind to reveal a yawning hole, its red-hot edges quickly cooling. “Armed robbery!” laughed Gallandro. “There’s nothing like it!”
“Let’s get inside,” Han mouthed. They ran together and hurdled through the gaping door. Hasti and Badure followed a moment later. “Stay here and make sure you maintain com-link with Chewie,” Han told them. Badure set Skynx down.
“Don’t forget the defensive system!” Hasti called as Han, Gallandro, and Skynx raced off. Among the things their captives had revealed was the fact that the treasure vaults were equipped with defensive security devices; the presence of a firearm in any protected area would trigger automated weapons.
They went deeper into the gloom of the cavernous vestibule, abandoned by the Dellaltians, who had wisely sought other refuge. Han didn’t see a man appear to one side, weapon raised, but Gallandro caught the movement, drew, and fired all in the same instant.
The steward cried aloud, clutching his middle, then collapsing to the pressure-pacted tile floor. The gunman kicked the steward’s dropped disruptor away.
“You cannot, cannot,” the white-bearded man moaned, half in delirium from his wound. “We have kept it, safe, unsullied since we were entrusted with it.” His lids fluttered and lowered forever.
Gallandro laughed. “We’ll make better use of it than you, old man. At least we’ll get it into circulation, eh, Solo?”
Han, moving on, offered no answer. Gallandro came after, and Skynx rushed to catch up. They descended dusty ramps and broad staircases, the empty vaults all around them. At one point they lowered themselves by the cable of an ancient lift platform that no longer worked, complying precisely with the instructions extracted from the captive Survivors under hypno. Han marked their trail with a tint bulb. At the lowest level of the vault proper they came to a forking of the ways. Their information on the vault-complex layout went no further than this.
“It’s off this corridor, one of the side tunnels,” Han said. “Got your copy of the identi-marks? Good.”
“The little fellow can stay with you, Solo,” Gallandro replied,