Star Wars_ The New Rebellion - Kristine Kathryn Rusch [13]
—and then stopped when she found his face. His eyes were open and empty, his mouth half-closed over his six rows of teeth. She ran a bloody hand along his torn cheeks.
“M’yet,” she said, the word rumbling in her throat. He didn’t deserve to die like this. She hated his politics, but he was a good friend, a decent friend, and one of the best politicians she had ever met. She had hoped to convert him to her ways. She had hoped he would work with the Republic in a leadership position one day, outside the Senate, where he would be a strong voice for change.
The doors opened. Blinding light filled the Hall. Leia braced herself and propped her blaster on a nearby rock. Then she saw her own security people hurrying in. She got up and ran to them, struggling on stairs and debris, trying not to trip.
“Hurry!” she said as she reached the top. “We have wounded below!”
One of the guards spoke back to her, but she couldn’t hear him. Instead, she surveyed the damage from above. Each seat was covered with debris. Most of the senators were moving, but many weren’t.
The tone had truly been set for this Senatorial term.
And for that, the Empire would pay.
Five
The boom made the glow panels dim in the Crystal Jewel. Then the ground shivered. Droid dealers all over the casino wailed as they shook on their moorings. Han’s precariously tilted chair fell. He slipped off it and caught it with one hand. Jarril toppled against the table, spilling the remaining drinks.
“What the—?”
“Groundquake?” someone asked.
“… falling …”
“… Look out!”
The screams and shouts drowned out any attempt at conversation, not that Han was going to try. He’d lived through enough over the years to know that that was no groundquake. That was an explosion.
He tapped Jarril on the shoulder. “Let’s get out of here.”
“What is it?” Jarril yelled.
Han didn’t answer him, at least not directly. “We’re underground, pal. If we don’t get out now, we might not get out at all.”
Jarril probably hadn’t thought that through. These dives never felt as if they were six feet under, although they were. His scream joined the others as he stood. Han was already shoving his way to the door, his blaster in the face of anyone who tried to stop him. Along the way, he helped a Cemas to its feet, dodged the teeth of a freed nek battle dog, and pulled a wingéd Agee off a crumbling section of ceiling.
The crowd at the door was huge, all scrambling on top of one another, all trying to get free. Then Han realized some idiot had pulled the door shut.
“Let us out of here!” he shouted.
“You don’t know what’s out there!”
“I know that whatever it is, it’s a lot better than dying in here.”
Voices rose with his, all agreeing with his protests. He managed to shove his way to the front. An Oodoc, a species known for its size and strength but not its intelligence, stood before the door, its spiked arms crossed in front of its massive chest.
“It’s safer in here,” it said.
“Listen, toothpick brain,” Han said. “The roof’s about to cave in. I would rather take my chances with whatever’s out there than die with you in here.”
“I wouldn’t,” the Oodoc said.
“Then you don’t have to go.” Han shoved him aside and blasted the lock on the door. The ricochet caught the Oodoc in its spiny back. It growled and lunged for Han as the door swung open.
A tide of seamy creatures flowed into the corridors beyond, gathering Han and sweeping him away from the Oodoc. He pulled free, reached the turbolift by himself, scanned for Jarril, and didn’t see him. The lift stopped a level below the surface and Han went up the stairs two at a time, braced for the next blast, which seemed to take forever in coming.
The crowd reached the doors, bursting through them. The screaming and shouting stopped when people reached the surface.
Han reached the top and stopped so suddenly