Star Wars the Truce at Bakura - Kathy Tyers [111]
Luke swung his saber through the console with a deep sweep of his shoulders, then shifted his body and reversed the stroke. The gargoyle cacophony fell silent.
He took a long slow look around, breathing deeply and cautiously. The chamber and the ship felt clean at last.
Had he just stranded himself onboard?
Light rods gleamed behind gray conduits along the ceiling, so emergency power existed. Now he had to trace energy flow on the boards like anyone else. “Dev? Can you read any of this?”
After a hurried consultation, they decided that the ion drive and hyperdrive still operated—but he’d blown the linkage between Bridge and Engineering. “That’s amazing,” murmured Dev.
Luke stared around at glowing displays. Not stranded in a dead hulk, then, but the Shriwirr was crippled. He coughed again. They had life support, weapons, and communication. No medpacks, though. Nothing for strained leg muscles, and no breath mask to filter out whatever was irritating his lungs. He’d have to tough it out till he could get off the Shriwirr. Again the thought crossed his mind that he’d just as soon not be stranded here, especially if the Ssi-ruuk lost. “Let’s get to a shuttle,” he said, pushing off from the control panel.
Dev led him to three giant shuttle bays in turn. Every flyer port and escape pod crane lay empty. They couldn’t even find the hijacked Imperial craft they’d ridden up from Salis D’aar spaceport. “Abandon ship,” Luke muttered. “Escape the terrible Jedi and his mighty apprentice.”
Dev swept out his arms. “Then this is our lifeboat. I’ll take you to the bridge.”
Luke’s cough rattled phlegm in his chest. “It’ll have to do,” he said reluctantly.
“Sorry about the DEMP guns,” Han crowed at Commander Thanas. Both had misfired, disabling the patrol craft, and he wasn’t sorry at all. Good thing he hadn’t gotten one for the Falcon.
“Casualties of war,” Thanas answered over the command channel in Han’s left ear. “As is Commander Skywalker, it seems. I am sorry. I admired his capabilities.”
“What’s going on?” Leia’s voice demanded.
“Governor Nereus just sent word. The aliens kidnapped him.”
“Don’t count Luke out,” Leia said tightly.
Han sniffed the air. Was that hot wiring? Hold together, baby!
Thanas’s brassy voice softened. “Your Highness, unless all the Ssi-ruuk retreat, we are now specifically ordered to destroy that cruiser.”
“What?” exclaimed Leia.
Prickles rose on Han’s neck. Only a quartet of Ssi-ruuvi picket ships prevented Thanas from doing it. His Dominant had plenty of firepower. “Why?” he asked.
“Contagion, General. I wasn’t told specifics, and I don’t make a habit of questioning orders. The consequences aren’t worth it.”
Leia broke in from the lower gun turret. “Question this one. Leave it alone for now, Commander.” Hah—she didn’t believe that contagion line any more than Han did. Governor Nereus just wanted revenge. Han spotted a thread of smoke curling out of one bulkhead and shut down the offending circuit. Crosswired like a city map, the Falcon could function with several boards out.
Commander Thanas’s voice hardened as he addressed someone else. “Squadrons eight through eleven, sweep up those escape pods.”
Leia protested, “But they’re defenseless.”
“We don’t know that,” Thanas answered coolly. “Some cultures arm their escape pods.”
“Standard Imperial procedure?” Leia challenged him. “Kill the wounded to cut medical costs?”
“You don’t seem concerned about the drone ships. Those are living energies.”
“Enslaved,” Leia snapped. “Irrevocably. Killing them only frees their souls.”
“I agree,” chimed in Captain Manchisco from the Flurry. She was helping an Imperial patrol craft harass an alien light cruiser into range of the Dominant’s tractor beam.
“And the aliens, Your Highness?” Thanas’s voice insisted.
Leia sounded as if she were clenching her teeth. “We are fighting for the survival of the Bakuran people—and probably others, Commander. Self-defense justifies a lot. But never a massacre of the