Star Wars_ The Jedi Academy Trilogy 01_ Jedi Search - Kevin J. Anderson [79]
“We’ll go look for him ourselves,” Lando said.
Luke could tell by the way Leia’s face brightened that this was what she intended to ask all along. “We’ll go snoop around,” he said. “There won’t be any official dispatch or record of our mission.”
Lando said, “We’d better take the Lady Luck. She’s just a privately owned yacht with some pretty good punch in her engines.”
Leia stepped forward and plucked Jaina out of Luke’s lap and cradled her. “I’ll watch over Gantoris and Streen while you’re gone.”
Luke nodded and spread his hands wide. “You see, that’s why you’re a diplomat—you think of details like that. Just don’t let the two of them get into any trouble.”
“We should take Artoo with us,” Lando said. “That little droid sure helped me out at the blob races.”
Luke had heard of Lando’s exploits with the scam artist Tymmo. “You can tell me all about it on our way there. Leia’s waited long enough.”
“Let’s go to Kessel,” Lando said.
15
They managed to steal the second shuttle.
Han and Chewbacca wasted precious time in the first cargo ship on the atmosphere factory’s landing pad, trying to cross-circuit the controls as Kyp Durron kept watch in the open hatch. The air was cold on their exposed skin, and they didn’t know how much stray radiation from the Maw actually penetrated the atmospheric shield; the sounds of breathing hissed behind their breath masks. No one had seen them. Yet.
After only a few minutes, Han accidentally triggered the shuttle’s automatic lockout systems. He slammed his hand on the panel. “Should have known I couldn’t beat the high-level security interlocks!”
Chewbacca pulled off an access plate and tossed it into the back compartment with the sound of a crashing landspeeder. Roaring in his Wookiee language, he began yanking wires out of the controls and jamming them into override ports, but the few lights still functioning on the panels continued to burn red.
“Forget it, Chewie. We’ll try the other ship,” Han said. “I think I know what I did wrong last time.”
Kyp kept watch on the tiny doors of the atmosphere factory’s massive stack. “Still no movement from inside. We’re clear.”
They raced across the open spaces of the landing field to the second cargo shuttle, an old Imperial model with scarred armor and long planar wings that made it look like a mechanical flying fish. Han and Chewbacca had flown a similar Lambda-class shuttle on their guerrilla mission to Endor; but this model looked even older. Prison facilities must have low priority for new equipment acquisitions, he thought.
Chewbacca opened the hatch, and Han ducked inside, moving straight to the controls. The Wookiee clambered after him as four guards marched into view around the perimeter of the atmosphere stack. The squad wore cobbled-together uniforms of old stormtrooper armor and thermal suits from the mines.
Kyp plastered himself to the wall just inside the open hatch. Looking across the landing field, he saw that they had forgotten to close the doorway on the first shuttle, and now their tampering was painfully obvious. He swallowed. “Better hurry, Han. We’ve got company, but they haven’t seen us yet.”
“If this doesn’t work, we’re in deep bantha dung,” Han muttered, punching up the command screens and removing the access plate to the security override.
The squad of guards marched on what was probably a routine patrol. Han glanced up to see them through the shuttle’s windowport, but the reflectorized transparisteel would prevent them from observing the pilot’s compartment. He wondered how many times a day the guards walked around the circular perimeter of the atmosphere stack. He