Star Wars the Truce at Bakura - Kathy Tyers [109]
“Firwirrung thinks he may be able to combine Sibwarra’s energies with the Jedi’s.”
“Hold both of them alive. You may exact a pride price on Sibwarra once we take Bakura.”
Sh’tk’ith yanked off his shoulder pouch. Hefting his beamer, he whistled at his cowering P’w’ecks. “Follow!”
Han had his hands full getting the Millennium Falcon where Commander Thanas wanted her, and the Ssi-ruuk had moved nine picket ships into engagement vectors. The Falcon dipped and dove while he chased down droid fighters and poured energy into their miserably strong shields. They came at him so thickly that he managed to fry a few with the Falcon’s engine blast. Chewbacca was trying to fix Threepio, and Leia kept the lower turret hot. But where was Luke? “Somewhere in space,” Leia had insisted. “But not on board the Flurry,” they’d heard from Tessa Manchisco.
Three TIE fighters swooped overhead. Han balled his fists. Those TIEs might be on his side, but he didn’t trust Commander Thanas one minute longer than the Fluties lasted. Caught in the middle of an invasion maneuver, the aliens weren’t even using their trooper scooper—no sign of tractor beams anywhere. One big Ssi-ruuvi vessel had already launched a dozen landing craft. Sluggish and underpowered, those had made a poor first ring of offense. He couldn’t tell if the Imperials’ new DEMP guns were working, but he wanted one.
His vector took him close to a big Flutie cruiser, one of three slowly moving in on Bakura. Eerie two-tone jamming momentarily drowned out offship communications. “Any progress?” he asked Chewie over the private comlink. Chewie howled an affirmative. “Good. Hurry it up. Leia, where’s Luke?”
“Right there! On board that big cruiser.” Leia’s voice, carried on both of Han’s headphone channels, seemed to sound between his ears. “Quick—put out word to our forces that it’s not to be attacked.”
The cruiser they’d just passed under? Han switched extra power into rear deflectors and dodged fire from its picket ships, then blasted one picket to atoms. “What’s he doing there?”
“I can’t tell,” Leia answered.
“Lookit that,” someone exclaimed, once he could hear the intersquad frequency again. Shuttles and escape pods popped off the Ssi-ruuvi cruiser like snap rivets from a stressed coolant vane.
“You were right,” Han observed to Leia. “Luke’s in there.”
Luke eyed the charred shred of fabric. “They’re none too sure of security.”
“Stun trap,” said Dev. “It’ll put down a Ssi-ruu, right through that hide. I think it’d kill you or me.”
Luke located the power link at shoulder height on a gray bulkhead, just out of saber reach beyond the arch. Because life created the Force, every circuit that used this unclean energy was easy to find and control—and he was getting better at it as he went. He touched this one gingerly with his mind and found a weak, exhausted will supplying power. Tired as he was, his first impulse was pity. Quickly and cautiously he showed it what he needed. Then he offered release. The will seemed to blink.…
“Quick, Dev!” Luke jumped through the arch. Brandishing his paddle beamer, Dev followed. Blue energies singed his flapping hem.
Luke hesitated. “Just a minute.” He must keep his promise. Carefully he flicked his lightsaber into circuitry. The pitiful will touched his mind, leaving gratitude as it fled.
The stun traps occurred at six-meter intervals. Luke chafed at each delay, and each energy required a different persuasion. As he tired, his sense of urgency grew stronger.
They reached a junction. Their corridor went forward, slowly curving to the right, but another narrower opening branched right sharply. A yellow light rod gleamed down the center of its arched ceiling. Across the main corridor from that junction, a wide metal hatchway loomed shut.
Ambush, Luke’s senses shouted. Cautiously he stepped around the corner to the right, pressed against the bulkhead, then turned to listen behind the broad metal hatch. He thought he felt someone—