Star Wars the Truce at Bakura - Kathy Tyers [107]
From a safe spot near the bulkhead, Luke stretched out his right hand and visualized his lightsaber. It had to be close. Less than a second later, its satisfying weight arrived. “Are you down, Dev?” he cried over the cacophony of deep Ssi-ruuvi whistles.
Muffled answer: “Yes.”
“Good.” Luke extended the saber’s blade. The chamber lit eerie green, and the aliens’ alarmed whistles rose to shrieks. Two black eyes reflected the saber a moment before it sliced below them. Another alien bellowed. Luke spun and decapitated it.
Big Blue—it was him, at the hatch—finally kicked it in and escaped. Another followed him into the bright corridor.
“Now what?” Dev shouted.
“Stay low!” Three mechanical shapes that resembled Artoo appeared in the hatchway. The first droid rushed him. He sliced it diagonally with the saber and reached for the others with the Force. They weren’t true droids, but marginally alive. One fired a pair of stun bolts at him. He deflected one bolt back toward his attacker and the other at its partner. Both overloaded and switched off—but the weird stench in the Force, like the presence of a soul half decayed, only faded slightly. He’d caught the same stench from the battle droids, and the ship itself. The cruiser reeked in his senses, permeated with stolen human energies. It might burn heavy fusionables for ordnance and thrust, but its control systems had to be powered in the hideous Ssi-ruuvi way.
Dev crept out from behind the grim chair. Glimmers of dark side energy lingered around it from thousands of victims’ terrorized agony. “You all right?” Luke asked.
Dev’s pale brown skin looked olive green by the saber’s light, and he gripped a paddle beamer with both hands. “That was wonderful.”
It wasn’t too soon to launch Dev’s apprenticeship. “Two of your Ssi-ruuk died.”
“I know,” he groaned, “but how else—”
“Exactly. You have to fight, but you mustn’t like it.” He hoped Yoda didn’t laugh aloud, hearing him say that.
Dev chewed his upper lip. “Now what?”
“Stand back.” Luke spun on his strong leg and sliced once, twice, three times through the chair and its dangling machinery, then again through the upright table. Pieces crashed to the deck, denting its tiles. He returned the saber to rest salute position. “Are there more labs like this?”
He felt Dev wilt, eyes haunted and wide. “They’ve nearly completed another thirty.”
Thirty! “It’d take us too long to ruin that many. No more operational?”
“Not that I know of. And I assisted with …”
“We’ll assume this is the only one, then.” Perspiration ran down Luke’s face, even with his mind relaxed into the Force. “Are onboard control systems powered by human energies too?”
Dev’s frown deepened. “I don’t know. I’d never thought about it. It’s possible.”
“I can feel it. Can you take me to the engineering sector?”
“Yes.”
Holding the saber low, Luke sidestepped toward the outer bulkhead. He slid along it and peered into the corridor. “There are six more droids active out there, but no Ssi-ruuk.”
“They’re scared to death of you.”
“Why?”
“They don’t want to die off one of their home worlds. That’s why they force slaves and P’w’ecks to do all their fighting.” Dev edged up behind him and whispered, “Be careful.”
“Just stay behind me.” About to relax into full control, Luke realized he was already there. He stepped into the hatchway, holding his saber ready. An energy bolt sizzled toward him. Dev cried out and jumped back. Luke’s saber swept up and returned the energy. The droid sputtered dead.
One down. The other five were undoubtedly programmed to fire … simultaneously! came the blasts. Luke’s saber whirled. The droids dropped, smoking and throwing sparks.
Dev whistled soft admiration.
“I’ll teach you to do that.” Luke’s right leg tingled and ached. He must’ve wrenched it worse than he thought when he jumped onto that table.
“Do it soon,” Dev said earnestly. “I want what you have.”
“Engineering deck first,” Luke murmured, satisfied. Dev’s apprenticeship looked official. “Stay close behind me.”
They crept up a bright corridor. “Left,” Dev whispered.