Star Wars_ The Jedi Academy Trilogy 01_ Jedi Search - Kevin J. Anderson [65]
“Hey, how about some of those infrared goggles?” Han called. “If there really is something out there, we’ll need to be able to see where to run.”
Roke contemptously put his own goggles over his eyes. “You’re expendable.” He activated the guidance system on the front car’s controls. The lights went out, and the opposite door groaned open, flooding the compartment with cold, thin air.
“So much for that idea,” Han said, then scrambled to put his breath mask in place.
The unenthusiastic prisoner, Clorr, groaned in dismay. Then the floating cars lurched into motion, gaining speed until they bulleted through the tunnels. The air whooshed as the car sped close to crumbling rock tubes from which generations of spice miners had peeled glitterstim deposits.
When the wind of their passage drowned out other noises, Kyp leaned closer to Han, speaking through his breath mask. “Okay, so tell me what we got ourselves into.”
Han shrugged. “I have an idea, and if I’m right, we can all get out of this mess.”
Chewbacca made a skeptical sound but ended in a question.
“Think about it, Chewie. People have been disappearing off and on from the same place—what if they found a way to escape? They’ve been working new tunnels, going into unexplored areas looking for spice, then suddenly a bunch of them don’t come back. You and I know there are plenty of abandoned shafts from the illicit miners that slipped through Imperial security. This planet is honeycombed with entrances to the spice tunnels.”
Han paused, hoping they had already figured it out. “Roke’s teams usually have one guard and five blind prisoners. What if they came around the corner and suddenly found an opening to the surface, letting them see again. They could overpower the guard and make their way to freedom.
“Once Roke discovers the way out, though, he’ll block it up and we won’t have another chance. If we’re ever going to get out, if I’m ever going to get back and see Leia and the kids, I’ve got to try. I thought maybe this desperate gamble would be worth it.”
“Sounds like a good chance,” Kyp said. “I’ve been down here so long, I’m willing to try anything.”
Chewbacca agreed, but with somewhat less enthusiasm.
They plunged down and down, whipping around sharp corners. Several times Han thought the rocky walls brushed within a handbreadth of his head, and he tried to crouch down inside the car. He didn’t want to imagine what would happen if Chewbacca’s head struck an outcropping at the speed they were moving.
In the black spice mines Han rapidly lost all conception of time. He had no idea how long they traveled, how far they went, or how fast the floating cars moved through the tunnels. Boss Roke brought the vehicle to a stop and called for the prisoners to dismount. The guard noisily unshouldered his blaster rifle.
Han paid extra attention to the small noises he heard, building the best mental picture possible of where Boss Roke and the guard were standing at all times. That was something he would need to know if he had to make a quick escape. But they had gone down so deep now, he could not imagine finding a passage to the surface.
“Follow me,” Boss Roke said. “I want one prisoner up front ahead of me and the guard taking the rear.”
Han heard a shove and a gasp, then someone stumbled forward. Was it Kyp? No, from the unpleasant groan he determined that the point man would be Clorr, the former prison worker.
Boss Roke rustled in his pack, withdrawing some piece of equipment. Han heard an electronic clicking and pinging sound. It was some sort of detector. Han strained his ears, listening to the tones change as Roke moved the scanner from side to side.
“Spice all around us,” Roke said. “Just as we thought, and the concentration seems even higher up ahead. Move forward.”
Clorr stumbled into the blackness,