Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 21_ The Unifying Force - James Luceno [66]
Withdrawing deeper into the station, Leia was glancing over her shoulder as she approached a corridor intersection when Han suddenly threw his left arm around her waist and twirled her off to one side. From the scarlet glow of the intersecting corridor dropped an amphistaff thick as a war club, slicing the air where she would have been and hitting the deck with a hollow thud! The warrior attached to the amphistaff howled and sprang forward, falling victim to a precisely placed bolt from Han’s sidearm.
“You do care, after all,” Leia said around a short-lived grin. Still in his one-armed embrace, she went up on her toes to kiss him on the cheek.
Han smiled and let her go. “What’s a star without his leading lady?”
“Combat always did bring out the romantic in you.” She started off after him, then stopped and turned to see C-3PO dithering at the intersection.
“This way, Threepio—hurry!”
He glanced at her, then gestured to the side corridor. “But, Princess—”
“Come on!”
C-3PO muttered something, then began to shuffle forward as fast as his squeaking legs would carry him. Leia and Han were waiting for him at the next blast shield. She palmed the operating stud as soon as C-3PO had crossed the threshold, but the shield closed only halfway. Han pounded the stud with his fist, then, stepping back a meter, fired a bolt into the control panel.
Leia ducked the ricochet and shook her head in dismay. “Anyone ever tell you you’re as hard on technology as the Yuuzhan Vong?”
The thick blast shield vibrated and slammed to the deck.
Han grinned smugly. “Only when technology puts up an argument. And speaking of which, where’d Threepio go?”
Taking a quick look around, Leia found him cowering in a corner.
“What’re you standing around for?” Han said. “You want to end up as a skewered droid?”
“No, Captain Solo, but the blast door—”
His words were garbled by the sound of approaching footfalls. Leia raised her lightsaber; Han, his blaster. But it was a dozen Alliance soldiers who showed up a moment later.
“You don’t want to go that way,” Han and one of the soldiers said at the same time.
“Yuuzhan Vong,” Han said, pointing toward the blast shield.
“Dead end,” the soldier said, pointing in the opposite direction.
Han stared at the blast shield, then whipped around. “Dead end?”
C-3PO raised his hands to his head. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!”
Something rammed into the far side of the blast shield, and within seconds wisps of stinging smoke began curling from a series of small perforations. Han and Leia looked at each other.
“Weren’t we just here?” she commented.
Everyone moved back from the shield to take up positions in the corridor. Again, Han checked the charge of his blaster, which was down to 50 percent.
“I’m not letting them take me alive, Captain,” a soldier nearby said.
Han aimed his forefinger at the young man. “You’re not going to be taken. Leave it at that, soldier.”
The soldier gulped and nodded. “Thank you, sir.”
The center of the blast shield was rapidly dissolving. War cries and shouts of personal challenge echoed in the corridor.
Han listened for a moment, then swung to Leia. “I’ve got something that just might pass for an idea. Threepio, get over here!”
The droid rose unsteadily from behind a rodent’s nest of corroded ventilation ducts. “Coming, sir.”
Han looked straight into C-3PO’s photoreceptors. “Three-pio, I want you to talk to the Yuuzhan Vong in their own language.”
“Talk to them? But I wouldn’t begin to know what to say.”
Han’s nostrils flared. “What, suddenly you’re at a loss for words? Tell them that all warriors are needed for individual combat in the number one module. Tell them it’s lunchtime for all I care!”
“I don’t believe the Yuuzhan Vong have a word for—”
“Do as Han says, Threepio,” Leia interrupted.
C-3PO’s head moved in fits and starts. “How can I possibly mimic—”
“Boost the bass settings of your audio output modifier,” a soldier suggested.