Part 10 (1/2)
Simultaneously the lightsaber jerked around, as accurate as it was awkward in its motion, to deflect the bolt. This time the ball didn't fall motionless to the deck. Instead it backed up three meters and remained there, hovering.
Aware that the drone of the seeker remote no longer a.s.saulted his ears, a cautious Luke peeked out from under the helmet. Sweat and exhaustion competed for s.p.a.ce on his face.
”Did I-?”
”I told you you could,” Ken.o.bi informed him with pleasure. ”Once you start to trust your inner self there'll be no stopping you. I told you there was much of your father in you.”
”I'd call it luck,” snorted Solo as he concluded his examination of the readouts.
”In my experience there is no such thing as luck, my young friend-only highly favorable adjustments of multiple factors to incline events in one's favor.”
”Call it what you like,” the Corellian sniffed indifferently, ”but good against a mechanical remote is one thing. Good against a living menace is another.”
As he was speaking a small telltale light on the far side of the hold had begun flas.h.i.+ng. Chewbacca noticed it and called out to him.
Solo glanced at the board, then informed his pa.s.sengers, ”We're coming up on Alderaan. We'll be slowing down shortly and going back under lightspeed. Come on, Chewie.”
Rising from the game table, the Wookiee followed his partner toward the c.o.c.kpit. Luke watched them depart, but his mind wasn't on their imminent arrival at Alderaan. It was burning with something else, something that seemed to grow and mature at the back of his brain as he dwelt on it.
”You know,” he murmured, ”I did feel something. I could almost 'see' the outlines of the remote.” He gestured at the hovering device behind him.
Ken.o.bi's voice when he replied was solemn. ”Luke, you've taken the first step into a larger universe.”
Dozens of humming, buzzing instruments lent the freighter's c.o.c.kpit the air of a busy hive. Solo and Chewbacca had their attention locked on the most vital of those instruments.
”Steady... stand by, Chewie.” Solo adjusted several manual compensators. ”Ready to go sublight... ready... cut us in, Chewie.”
The Wookiee turned something on the console before him. At the same time Solo pulled back on a comparatively large lever. Abruptly the long streaks of Doppler-distorted starlight slowed to hyphen shapes, then finally to familiar bolts of fire. A gauge on the console registered zero.
Gigantic chunks of glowing stone appeared out of the nothingness, barely shunted aside by the s.h.i.+p's deflectors. The strain caused the Millennium Falcon to begin shuddering violently.
”What the-?” a thoroughly startled Solo muttered. Next to him, Chewbacca offered no comment of his own as he flipped off several controls and activated others. Only the fact that the cautious Solo always emerged from supralight travel with his deflectors up-just in case any of many unfriendly folks might be waiting for him-had saved the freighter from instant destruction.
Luke fought to keep his balance as he made his way into the c.o.c.kpit. ”What's going on?”
”We're back in normal s.p.a.ce,” Solo informed him, ”but we've come out in the middle of the worst asteriod storm I've ever seen. It's not on any of our charts.” He peered hard at several indicators. ”According to the galactic atlas, our position is correct. Only one thing is missing: Alderaan.”
”Missing? But-that's crazy!”
”I won't argue with you,” the Corellian replied grimly, ”but look for yourself.” He gestured out the port. ”I've triple-checked the coordinates, and there's nothing wrong with the nav 'puter. We ought to be standing out one planetary diameter from the surface. The planet's glow should be filling the c.o.c.kpit, but-There's nothing out there. Nothing but debris.” He paused. ”Judging from the level of wild energy outside and the amount of solid waste, I'd guess that Alderaan's been... blown away. Totally.”
”Destroyed,” Luke whispered, overwhelmed at the specter raised by such an unimaginable disaster. ”But-how?”
”The Empire,” a voice declared firmly. Ben Ken.o.bi had come in behind Luke, and his attention was held by the emptiness ahead as well as the import behind it.
”No.” Solo was shaking his head slowly. In his own way even he was stunned by the enormity of what the old man was suggesting. That a human agency had been responsible for the annihilation of an entire population, of a planet itself...
”No... the entire Imperial fleet couldn't have done this. It would take a thousand s.h.i.+ps ma.s.sing a lot more firepower than has ever existed.”
”I wonder if we should get out of here,” Luke was murmuring, trying to see around the rims of the port. ”If by some chance it was the Empire ”I don't know what's happened here,” an angry Solo cursed, ”but I'll tell you one thing. The Empire isn't-”
m.u.f.fled alarms began humming loudly as a synchronous light flashed on the control console. Solo bent to the appropriate instrumentation.
”Another s.h.i.+p,” he announced. ”Can't judge the type yet.”
”A survivor, maybe-someone who might know what happened,” Luke ventured hopefully.
Ben Ken.o.bi's next words shattered more than that hope. ”That's an Imperial fighter.”
Chewbacca suddenly gave an angry bark. A huge flower of destruction blossomed outside the port, battering the freighter violently. A tiny, double-winged ball raced past the c.o.c.kpit port.
”It followed us!” Luke shouted.
”From Tatooine? It couldn't have,” objected a disbelieving Solo. ”Not in hypers.p.a.ce.”
Ken.o.bi was studying the configuration the tracking screen displayed. ”You're quite right, Han. It's the short-range TIE fighter.”
”But where did it come from?” the Corellian wanted to know. ”There are no Imperial bases near here. It couldn't have been a TIE job.”
”You saw it pa.s.s.”
”I know. It looked like a TIE fighter-but what about a base?”
”It's leaving in a big hurry,” Luke noted, studying the tracker. ”No matter where it's going, if it identifies us we're in big trouble.”
”Not if I can help it,” Solo declared. ”Chewie, jam its transmission. Lay in a pursuit course.”
”It would be best to let it go,” Ken.o.bi ventured thoughtfully. ”It's already too far out of range.”
”Not for long.”
Several minutes followed, during which the c.o.c.kpit was filled with a tense silence. All eyes were on the tracking screen and viewport.
At first the Imperial fighter tried a complex evasive course, to no avail. The surprisingly maneuverable freighter hung tight on its tail, continuing to make up the distance between them. Seeing that he couldn't shake his pursuers, the fighter pilot had obviously opened up his tiny engine all the way.
Ahead, one of the mult.i.tude of stars was becoming steadily brighter. Luke frowned. They were moving fast, but not nearly fast enough for any heavenly object to brighten so rapidly. Something here didn't make sense.
”Impossible for a fighter that small to be this deep in s.p.a.ce on its own,” Solo observed.
”It must have gotten lost, been part of a convoy or something,” Luke hypothesized.
Solo's comment was gleeful. ”Well, he won't be around long enough to tell anyone about us. We'll be on top of him in a minute or two.”
The star ahead continued to brighten, its glow evidently coming from within. It a.s.sumed a circular outline.
”He's heading for that small moon,” Luke murmured.
”The Empire must have an outpost there,” Solo admitted. ”Although, according to the atlas, Alderaan had no moons.” He shrugged it off. ”Galactic topography was never one of my best subjects. I'm only interested in worlds and moons with customers on them. But I think I can get him before he gets there; he's almost in range.”
They drew steadily nearer. Gradually craters and mountains on the moon became visible. Yet there was something extremely odd about them. The craters were far too regular in outline, the mountains far too vertical, canyons and valleys impossibly straight and regularized. Nothing as capricious as volcanic action had formed those features.