Star Wars_ The Han Solo Adventures - Brian Daley [78]
Three tier blocks going all at once figured, Han thought, what with that first giant demand placed on the anticoncussion fields when the power plant went. “Uh, yeah, Doc. I meant to mention that. You know you’re in a tower, right? Well, I, I sort of blew it into space; overloaded the power plant and cut the overhead deflector shield so that—”
Doc clapped a hand over his eyes. “Han, you imbecile!”
Han became defensive. “You don’t like it? Climb back into your shipping crate!” He saw he’d made his point. “No time to argue; there’s no way Stars’ End can make it all the way out of Mytus VII’s gravity. We’re due for a crash, and I’m not sure how soon. The only thing that’ll save us is that anticoncussion field, and it’s faded. It’s up to you to make sure it’s juiced up when we hit.”
Doc was staring at Han with his mouth open. “Sonny, energizing an anticoncussion field is not like hot-wiring somebody’s skyhopper and going for a joy-ride!”
Han threw his hands up. “Fine; let’s just sit and wait to smash ourselves flat. Jessa can always adopt a new father.”
That struck home. Doc sighed. “You’re right; if it’s our one shot, we shall take it. But I don’t think much of your taste in jailbreaks.” He turned to the others, who had been kept from intruding in the conversation only because of Chewbacca’s looming presence. “Pay attention! No time for chatting! Come with me, and do as I say, and we may make it yet; at least I can promise you an end to interrogation.”
He elbowed Han. “Blaze of glory, and all that, eh?” Then he started off at the head of a shuffling, loping, hoof-clacking horde, each individual moving on whatever extremities or in whatever fashion was his.
As they went, Han rapidly told Doc the bare bones of the story. The old man interrupted: “This Trianii is onboard the Millennium Falcon?”
“Should be, but it won’t do us much good; the Falcon’s tractors could never hold back this tower from re-entry.”
Doc stopped. “I say, did you hear something, boy?”
They all had, the mew and crackle of blaster fire. They broke into a run. For all his apparent age, Doc kept up with the pilot and the Wookiee. They reached the emergency door just as the limp body of a prisoner was passed into the corridor from the stairwell. It was a gangling, saurian creature with a blaster burn in its midsection. From the stairwell came the irregular sounds of a firefight.
“What’s going on?” Han shouted, trying to elbow his way through. Chewbacca got in front, shoving and yelping, and opened a way. The prisoner who Han had arbitrarily put in charge appeared on the stairs. “We’re holding an upper landing. There are a number of Authority people up there, trying to fight their way down. I put some lookouts on the lower stairs, but nothing’s happened down there yet.”
“Hirken and his bunch are trying to make their way down because the air locks are located here and on the lowest level. He’s hoping for a rescue,” Han told them.
Doc and the others looked at him in surprise. He remembered that Stars’ End must be largely unknown territory to them. The constabulary officer asked, “Just what’s happened?”
“Our time’s running out, is what,” Han answered. “We have to hold up here and give Doc there a chance to get down to the engineering levels. Take whoever’s armed on point; there’ll be some resistance down there, but it ought to be light. The rest can follow at a distance.”
The expedition down the stairwell began, with Doc hurrying because none of them knew when the tower would hit its apogee and begin its plummeting descent.
Meanwhile, Han and Chewbacca dashed upstairs. Han felt himself breathing hard and understood that life-support systems were beginning to fail. If the oxygen pressure in the tower fell too low, all their efforts would mean nothing.
They joined the defenders holding the second landing above the tier blocks.