Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 10_ Jedi Bounty - Kevin J. Anderson [51]
He had every confidence in his sister's abilities.
At the moment, though, he had grave questions as to how he would rescue his human friends, and whether he could ever free Raaba from this tangled web into which she had fallen....
With an electronic sigh of relief, Em Teedee zipped into the cockpit and dropped down onto the control panels. "Assistant navigator, reporting for duty! Might I recommend an immediate departure?" he said.
Roaring his agreement, Lowie sealed the Rock Dragon's entry hatch while Sirra punched up the engine controls. The repulsorlifts barely had time to raise the craft off the ground before Sirra launched the ship forward.
One of the landing struts scraped a white gash along the stone.
Lowie dragged himself into the cockpit and frantically began entering access codes and connecting Em Teedee's wiring to the navicomputer.
The Rock Dragon shot toward the blast doors, which were even now closing as a few Ughaughts furiously cranked mechanical systems to seal the Wookiees in. But Sirra put on a burst of speed that threw Lowie back in his seat.
From the outer tunnel, where the Trandoshan was now completely buried, more guards raced into the bay to set up heavier weapons on tripods.
They fired before they were ready, though, and only struck the blast doors and walls. The Duros, Sullustans, and Ugnaughts dove for cover from the ricochets.
Sirra let out a howl of triumph as the ship skimmed through the narrowing gap of the closing blast doors. The Rock Dragon soared out into Ryloth's open sky.
In the dust-rilled tunnel, salvage workers scurried across the rubble, picking at the rocks and hauling away fallen boulders in order to open the collapsed passageway.
With a clatter of broken stone and a mighty roar of anger, the Trandoshan burst through the avalanche debris and hauled himself out of the rubble.
He coughed and spat. Blood leaked from gashes in his tough, scaly hide.
Filth encrusted the burned wound where Lowie's lightsaber had scorched him. Corrsk didn't feel any of it.
Two furry Bothans tried to help the reptilian, but he hammered them aside and climbed to his feet.
His left legwas terribly injured. Corrsk looked down at his mangled scales and crushed muscles with anger. Still, he felt no pain. He let out a snarl as he saw that the Rock Dragon had escaped through the closing blast doors. The ineffective guards shot their clumsy weapons again, but to no avail.
Corrsk clenched his clawed hands. He desperately needed to kill something, someone, and he wanted it to be one of the Wookiees.
The smell of Lowbacca's blood was in his nostrils now. The Wookiees had injured him.
Corrsk would not stop until he was able to crush Lowbacca with his bare hands.
PUNISHING HOT LIGHT poured like a river of fire down from the sky, and Ryloth's surface radiated it upward again in shimmering waves.
The sweltering day-heat was intense, rolling off the dark rocks and the half-melted sands. Every breath was like gulping a mouthful of fire.
Ryloth's unmoving sun burned a bright hole in the sky and reflected from every object on the surface.
Far from the sheer cliffs, chasms split open like old scabs to reveal running streams of molten lava that burned orange, yellow, and white.
Raynar did his best to keep up with Jaina as they trudged between cracks, leapt across open spaces like ovens, and hid from the fire in any shadows they could find. "Now I know--what a nerf sausage--on a hot plate--feels like," he panted.
Jaina couldn't answer. Her skin was already red and raw, her hands and feet blistered. The temperate zone seemed impossibly far away across the broiling landscape. Jaina didn't know how they would ever get there, or if Lowie had even made it safely to the Rock Dragon.
With sunken cheeks, red-rimmed eyes, and dry, salt-encrusted skin, Raynar looked completely desiccated. His hair