Star Wars_ The Han Solo Trilogy 01_ The Paradise Snare - A. C. Crispin [118]
When he came back to Bria, she saw that he had a palm-sized locator computer. “How much did that cost?” she asked, eyeing it worriedly. Their funds from the sale of the Ylesian yacht were running low.
“Only twenty,” Han said. “This world’s too easy to get lost on, I figure. All I gotta do is enter our destination, like this …” Squinting with concentration, he entered, “Level 86, megablock 4, block 2, subblock 13 …”
“What’s that?”
“The place where I got us a room for tonight,” Han answered, not looking up. “And … there!”
Directions from their present location appeared on the screen. “First, we take the turbolift down to level 16 …” Han muttered, looking around. “There!”
They headed for the sign marked TURBOLIFT.
Once aboard the lift, Bria gasped at the precipitous drop. They fell … and fell …
“Like being in space,” Han said uneasily. “Almost free fall …”
“My stomach doesn’t like this,” Bria gulped.
Fortunately, the turbolift slowed as it reached its destination. Bria staggered off, looking slightly green.
“Now to find megablock 4 …” Han mumbled, still concentrating on his little gadget. “Then we’ll go down again …”
Once out of the turbolift, Bria looked around her in wonder and growing claustrophobia. Everywhere buildings loomed over her, so high she had to crane her neck to see their tops. The tops of many of them supported another rooftop, probably like the one she was standing on.
Even though it had been bright (but chilly) daylight up on the landing pad, here it was dark and warm. No air seemed to move in the duracrete and transparisteel canyons between the buildings. She heard a distant rumble of thunder, but no rain reached her, and she had no way of telling whether the storm was above her or below her.
Occasional unbarricaded airshafts broke the permacrete on the rooftop, and about a hundred meters away, Bria could see the abrupt line of demarcation at the end of the pavement. Evidently a thoroughfare ran at the deepest levels.
She walked over to look down one of the airshafts and, after one brief glance, staggered back, head spinning and her palms crawling with vertigo. She glanced around, saw no one near her, then dropped to her hands and knees and crawled back to peek over again. As long as she wasn’t standing, she thought that the dizziness might not be too bad.
Nearing the edge of the lip, she held on with both hands and peered down the airshaft.
The airshaft went down … and down … and down. It was amazing, frightening, to imagine her body falling down that seemingly bottomless expanse, helplessly turning and twisting in midair.
Bria stared down, shaking. If she were to lean a little farther, just a tiny bit farther, she’d fall down that shaft. It would be effortless. She wouldn’t have to jump, no. Just … lean … and if she did that, she’d never have to feel the pangs of longing for the Exultation again. She’d be free from the pain, the craving. She’d be free …
Both drawn and repelled, Bria swayed, leaning farther toward the edge … farther …
“What are you doing?”
A hand grabbed her shoulder, yanking her back, away from that yawning drop into nothingness. Bria looked up dazedly, to see Han staring at her, his features twisted with worry. “Bria, honey! What were you doing?”
She put a hand to her head, shook it dizzily. “I … I don’t know, Han. I felt … so strange.” Gulping, black dots dancing before her eyes, she struggled not to faint or be sick.
Han pushed her head down between her knees, then knelt beside her as she trembled. He stroked her hair, hugged her tightly as her shudders intensified. She was shaking all over. “Easy … easy … just take it easy.”
Finally, Bria looked up, feeling her shivers abate a little. “Han, I don’t know what happened. I felt so strange for a moment there. I think I almost fell …”
“You did,” he said grimly. “It’s called vertigo, sweetheart. I’ve seen people get it before, out in space,