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"Look out!" she cried, and dove for a pile of heavy crates.

Anja and Zekk had already scrambled backward. Lando stared in horror.

"My hovercoaster!" he clustered chameleon creatures skittered about, scrambling for balance. Suddenly the entire framework toppled beneath them, groaning, bending, twisting.

Jaina looked up, shielding her eyes against any debris that might fall in their direction. The smooth-skinned creatures tumbled downward, shaken loose from their precarious perches. Their skin color shifted as they tried to match the color of the air through which they fell.

Girders groaned and crumpled. With a resounding crash, the central section of the hovercoaster slammed down onto the deckplates.

"That's just great," Lando said, astounded. "Now I'm even more behind schedule."

Showing no consideration whatsoever in response to his financial plight, the traitorous Cloud City security troops opened fire again, running toward the scene of the crash.

"We've got them now," bellowed one deep voice.

As Lowbacca roared across the sky in his commandeered blue cloud car, he hooked sharply off to the left, intentionally veering far away from Jacen and Tenel Ka. Separating and causing their pursuers to split up seemed their best chance of escape.

"Master Lowbacca, what do you think you're doing?" Em Teedee said shrilly.

Lowie jerked the controls and accelerated even more, spinning around in a sideways loop as the pursuing hit men fired their weapons.

The bolts sizzled through the air, and Lowie's sensitive nose could smell the ionization drifting up, a taint of ozone and other burned gases from Bespin's atmosphere. The blue cloud car lurched from one side to another, letting the bolts pass harmlessly beneath the hull.

"You realize, of course, that you're not licensed to pilot this craft,"

Em Teedee continued. "You have no training. We're all doomed!"

Lowie barked a warning.

"How do you expect me to be quiet? This is an emergency!" the little droid wailed, but when Lowie growled that every small distraction would increase their likelihood of crashing, Em Teedee promptly fell silent and blinked his optical sensors with internal misery.

As Lowie soared along, though, his sensitive ears detected a flutter in the cloud car's engine. The craft may well have been unused for months or even years, and it was severely out of tune. With one glance he confirmed that he had very little fuel as well.

He looked behind at the single predatory craft that still followed.

Inside it, the slime-dripping alien and one Wing Guard pushed closer, firing their weapons. Unfortunately, their vehicle did not appear to have the least bit of engine trouble.

Lowie ducked and looped, then finally spun around and headed back toward Cloud City. Maybe someone would see the dogfight. Maybe he could get some help there.... Of course, since some important members of Cloud City's own infrastructure were out to kill the young Jedi Knights, he wasn't sure he could trust any offer of assistance.

In the clouds and rising tendrils of mists he saw no place to hide.

Lowie's cloud-car engine popped and sputtered again. He wrestled for control as the vehicle suddenly began losing altitude. The engine picked up again and he climbed... but during the brief interval he had lost most of his lead. His pursuers came right behind him. The roar of their engines filled his ears.

He ducked his head as a blast streaked directly above him, so close that it singed his ginger fur. Lowie did what he could, accelerating, punching all the controls in an attempt to find some kind of emergency override.

Then, with a disheartening pop, the hum of the turbines dropped to a lower pitch. The engines barely managed to keep the cloud car moving along. Lowie growled in despair.

Suddenly the hunters were right beside him.

Lowie searched for some kind of weapon, but the vehicle he had commandeered was no more than a pleasure craft, a skyskimmer used for racing among the clouds-and even as a racer, this cloud car wasn't much good. He hoped he had at