Part 5 (1/2)
The Preybird dodged the next round and unleashed a laser blast of its own. The s.h.i.+ps danced around each other, laserfire exploding on all sides. Han could do nothing but watch.
He hated it.
”What's going on with those laser cannons?” he shouted. This was his his fight. fight.
”No luck,” Luke called back. ”The cannons are jammed and even if we could get them working, we have no targeting capability. The whole system's gone haywire!”
”Great,” Han muttered. ”Just great.”
He swung the s.h.i.+p around and accelerated, heading straight for the TIE fighter.
”What are you doing?” Leia asked, panic filling her voice. ”What happened to running away?”
”Change of plans,” Han said, pus.h.i.+ng the s.h.i.+p faster.
”We don't have any weapons!”
”Glad you've been paying attention.” The TIE loomed in his sights. ”But he he doesn't know that.” doesn't know that.”
”That other s.h.i.+p is doing just fine-”
”I don't know about you, Highness, but I fight my own battles.”
”And how, exactly, are we supposed to fight without any weapons?”
The TIE fighter loomed in the viewscreen. They were almost on top of it. ”We'll figure that out when we-”
”He's retreating!” Leia exclaimed.
”Of course he is,” Han said calmly, trying to disguise his shock. And relief.
The Preybird took off after the fleeing TIE fighter, firing a single shot to its starboard solar array wing. The Imperial s.h.i.+p exploded.
Han tensed, waiting for the Preybird to make a move. Sure, the other pilot had helped them out of a jam. But in his experience, people only helped you when they wanted something. Maybe this guy wanted his cargo. Or his s.h.i.+p.
”How we doing with those laser cannons?” Han asked nervously.
A transmission came in over the comlink.
”Corellian freighter, this is...request a.s.sistance...” Only a few clear words bubbled up through the storm of static. ”Damaged my...and power generator...forced to...not sure if I...please send-”
The call cut off abruptly. They watched in horror as the s.h.i.+p belched out a plume of black exhaust, then dipped precariously toward a nearby moon. The Preybird glowed orange with heat as it plummeted through the atmosphere-and then disappeared beneath the clouds.
Leia's eyes widened with horror. ”We have to go after him!”
”I thought the only thing that mattered was the mission mission, Princess,” Han teased, quoting words she'd fired at him a hundred times.
She looked at him in disgust. ”He saved saved us. Now he's our responsibility.” us. Now he's our responsibility.”
”Hey, no one asked for his help,” Han grumbled. But he'd already set a course for the surface. That was the thing about Leia. She never understood when he was joking. It was almost like she wanted wanted to think the worst of him. to think the worst of him.
So let her, he thought. Why should he care?
He shouldn't.
But he did.
It took them almost an hour to find the crash site. Magnetic disturbances in the moon's atmosphere made it difficult to pick up the Preybird's distress beacon until they were right on top of it. But they finally found the s.h.i.+p, or what was left of it. The Preybird lay at the base of a jagged cliffside, smashed nearly to pieces.
Leia caught her breath. ”Do you think he's...?”
”Well, I doubt he's having a tea party in there,” Han said, keeping his voice light to cover his concern. No reason to upset the others-at least until there was a reason. ”But only one way to find out.”
The moon was uninhabited, and Han could see why. The air was dense and murky, rich with the scent of oxite. The bluish globe of Muunilinst hung overhead, on the opposite side of the sky from the dim, jaundiced sun. Scrub brush littered the dusty ground, spotting the dirt-gray hills of rock and clay that stretched to the horizon. There was no movement or sound in the heavy air; the world seemed still and dead.
Except...
”There's no one inside,” Luke reported, after examining the Preybird wreckage. Black scorch marks sc.r.a.ped across what was left of the hull. ”At least we know he's not dead.”
”Not yet.” Han pointed toward the large, inhuman tracks leading toward and then away from the s.h.i.+p, disappearing into the hills.
A thin groove in the dirt followed the footsteps, as if the creature had dragged something behind it.
The groove was stained with a trail of blood.
CHAPTER EIGHT.
Blood seeped through the bandage. A crimson stain spread swiftly across his s.h.i.+rt. He'd slashed himself deeper than intended, and could feel the life pumping out of him with each step.
No matter.
They would find him when he was ready to be found. And when that happened, a graver injury could only work in his favor.
No one would ever guess that the gashes had come from his fire blade rather than the crash.
X-7 had waited an hour before activating the distress beacon-and in the meantime, he'd been busy. After laying the trail, he'd doubled back, lying in wait for his ”rescuers” to arrive. Now he shadowed them as they followed the tracks he'd laid, leaving the Wookiee and the little R2 droid to guard the s.h.i.+p. He watched closely as the princess forged ahead, the two men scrambling to keep up with her.
So the princess was foolhardy, her friends powerless to stop her from blundering into trouble.
Interesting.
X-7 filed it away for future reference. He tread silently and stayed close. From a few paces behind, he could hear them bickering, could hear the protocol droid complaining, could hear the two men dither over which way to go as the tracks faded.
They didn't look like much of a threat.
Still, X-7 knew better than to trust his first impression. Many men had made that mistake when encountering him. Few lived to make it a second time.