Part 33 (1/2)

Still fuming, Han strode down the dock. Badure followed after a moment's indecision. The sh.o.r.e-gang chief called, ”I give you fair warning, strangers!”

The old bull reared up a bit as they approached. He was the size of Kasarax, his hide a near-black, net-worked with scars. His left eye was gone, lost in a long-ago battle, and his flippers were notched and bitten. But when he opened his mouth his tremendous fangs gleamed like honed weapons. ”You're new faces to the docks,” he said in a whistling voice.

”We want to get across the lake,” Han began. ”But we can't meet Kasarax's price.”

”Once, human, I'd have towed you across as quickly as you please and carefully, too, for eight driit each.” Han was about to accept when the creature cut him off. ”But today I tow for free.”

”Why?” Ham and Badure asked together.

The bull made a burbling sound that they took to be a laugh, and shot a blast from his blowhole. ”I, Shazeen, have vowed to show Kasarax that any of the Swimming People are free to work this dock, like any other. But I need pa.s.sengers, and Kasarax's sh.o.r.e gang keeps those away.”

The sh.o.r.e gang was gathered in conference, grouped in a knot of perhaps twenty, and shooting murderous looks at Han, Badure, and Shazeen. ”Can you meet us somewhere farther down the sh.o.r.e?” Han asked the native Dellaltian.

Shazeen reared, water streaming from his black back, looking like some primitive's war G.o.d. ”Boarding here at the dock is the whole point! Do that and I will do the rest, nor will any of the Swimming People meddle with you; it's Shazeen they must deal with, that is our Law, which not even Kasarax dares ignore!”

Badure pulled thoughtfully at his lower lip. ”We might go around the lake.”

Han shook his head. ”In how many days?” He turned to Shazeen. ”There are a couple more pa.s.sengers. We'll be right back.”

”If they menace you on the docks, I cannot interfere,” Shazeen warned. ”That is the Law. But they won't dare use weapons unless you do for fear the other humans, the ones who've been driven from their jobs, will have cause to intercede.”

Badure clapped Han's shoulder. ”I could stand a little cruise right now, Slick.” Han gave him a wicked grin; they started back.

The others were standing where they had been left. Hasti held a large cone of plasform that contained a ma.s.s of lumpy, pasty dough, which she and Chewbacca were eating with their fingers. She offered some to Badure and Han. ”We were starving; I picked this up from a vendor. What's the plan?”

Badure explained as they shared the doughy stuff. It was thick and gluey but had a pleasing flavor, like nutmeat. ”So,” finished Han, ”no shooting unless we have to. How's Skynx?”

The Wookiee chortled and held open the shoulder bag. The Ruurian lay in a near-circle, clutching the flask. When he saw Han, his faceted red eyes, which were somewhat glazed, grew wider. Skynx hiccupped, then chirped, ”You old pirate! Where've you been?” He flicked an antenna across Han's nose, then collapsed in chittering laughter.

”Oh, great,” said Han, ”he's tight as a scalp tick.” Han tried to recapture the flask, but Skynx curled into a ball and was gripping it with four limb-sets.

”He said he's never metabolized that much ethanol before,” said Hasti, looking slightly amused. ”That's exactly how he said it.”

”Keep it then,” Han told Skynx. ”But stay down; we're going for a ride.”

Skynx's m.u.f.fled voice came from the shoulder bag, ”Perfect idea!”

They made their way back to the dock. Men from Kasarax's sh.o.r.e gang blocked their way to the embarkation float. Others, not of the gang, had appeared and leaned against walls or stacked cargo, carrying spring-guns, firearms, and makes.h.i.+ft weapons. Han remembered what Shazeen had said: these people had been forced out of a living by Kasarax's racket. None had been willing to risk riding with Shazeen, but they would see to it no weapons were used to keep Han's party from doing so. The rest of the sh.o.r.e gang was scattered around the docks, holding weapons of their own. As Han understood it, any shooting would trigger a general bloodbath, but anything short of that was allowable.

When Han was within a few paces, the sh.o.r.e-gang chief addressed him. ”That's close enough.” Several of his men were whispering among themselves, seeing the size of the cloaked and hooded Chewbacca.

Han moved closer, giving out a string of bland cordialities. He had the impression that the man was a good brawler and thought: Victory first; questions later! The chief reached to shove him back, with a warning. ”I'm not telling you again, stranger!”

How right, agreed Han silently. He speeddrew, blindingly fast, and placed his gun against the chief's head. The man was shoving and warning one instant, falling the next, with a look of surprise on his face. Han had time to backhand another man and give the sh.o.r.e-gang chief a stiff shove, such was the surprise he had generated. Then he had to duck a truncheon, and the scene erupted.

One young sh.o.r.e-gang member swung an eager one-two combination at Bollux, a short set-up jab and a long uppercut that would have done considerable damage to a human. But the youth's fist gonged off the 'droid's hard midsection and rebounded from his reinforced faceplate. As the boy cried out in agony, Hasti stepped around Bollux and brought the barrel of her gun down on his head.

Another sh.o.r.e-gangster reached for Han, who was otherwise occupied. So Badure stopped him with a forearm block and lashed out with his foot, kicking high and hard. His antagonist dropped. They had done well enough for the moment, but now the rest of the sh.o.r.egangsters pressed in vengefully.

Then Chewbacca joined the brawl.

The Wookiee had stepped back to shuck the shoulder bag and put Skynx out of danger and to lay down his bowcaster. His hood still pulled low, he selected two men, shook them hard, then hurled them up and back in either direction. A swing of one long arm brushed another man back off the dock; Chewbacca kicked out in the opposite direction, connecting with a man who had lunged at Hasti. The man flew sideways, tumbled twice, and stretched out full length on the dock.

Two men tackled the Wookiee from either side. He ignored them, his legs as st.u.r.dy as columns beneath him. He struck out all around him, felling opponents with each blow.

The fight raged around Chewbacca, a flock of flailing, desperate sh.o.r.e-gangsters swarming at him. Spoiling for a fight since he had been downed by Egome Fa.s.s's treacherous attack, the Wookiee obliged them. Bodies flew back, up, over. The Millennium Falcon's first mate restrained himself to spare needless bloodshed. His companions found themselves left out of the riot with only occasional a.s.sistance to be rendered in the form of a tap on the head, a shove, or a shouted warning.

Chewbacca found time to give each of his legs a shake, and the men straining at them were flung loose. Those who remained standing made a concerted charge. The Wookiee spread his arms, scooped up all three of them, and dashed them against the dock. One of them, the gang chief, who had recovered from Han's blow and reentered the fight, pulled a punch-dagger from a forearm sheath.

Han angled for a clear shot then, whatever the consequences. But Chewbacca caught the chief's movement. The Wookiee's head snapped around, his hood falling back for the first time, and he unleashed a full-throated roar into the sh.o.r.e-gang chief's face, drawing his lips back off his jutting fangs. The chief turned absolutely white, eyes bulging, and managed to produce the smallest of squeaks. His punch-dagger fell from limp fingers. The snarling Wookiee, having attended to all the others, set the man down and put one forefinger against his chest. The chief fell backward to the deck, trying to draw breath.

Hasti grabbed Chewbacca's bowcaster and her dropped cone of dough; Badure held the sack containing Skynx, from which emerged chitters of hilarity. Han grabbed his partner's arm. ”Gangplank's going up!”

They dashed for the embarkation float, hopping one by one to the tow-raft. Shazeen, who had watched the whole encounter, loosed a blast from his blowhole. Closing a nict.i.tating membrane over his eye, he ducked beneath the water to reemerge with his head through the tow harness, commanding, ”Cast off!” Badure, last in line, brought the raft's painter with him.

They had expected Shazeen to move off quickly, but the Swimmer warped the raft out slowly. When he had put a few dozen meters between the raft and the dock, he slipped the tow harness by submerging, then resurfaced to nudge it to a stop with his rocklike snout. ”That was some fine thumping!” he hailed. Throwing his head back, he issued an oscillating call that rolled across the water. ”Shazeen salutes you,” he clarified.

”Uh, thanks,” Han replied dubiously. ”What's the holdup?”

”We wait for Kasarax,” Shazeen answered serenely.

Han's outburst was forestalled when another sauropteroid surfaced next to Shazeen, whistling and hissing with mouth and blowhole. ”Use their language, woman,” Shazeen chided the newcomer, who was smaller and lighter of hide but nearly as battle-scarred as the big bull. ”These are Shazeen's friends. That pipsqueak there with the hairy face can really thump, can't he?”

The female switched to Standard. ”Will you really oppose Kasarax?”

”No one tells Shazeen where he may or may not swim,” replied the other creature.

”Then the rest of us are behind you!” she answered. ”We'll keep Kasarax's followers out of it.” The lake water swirled as it closed over her head.

”Drop anchor!” shouted Han. ”Cut the power! Cancel the reservations! You never said anything about a faceoff.”

”A race, a mere formality,” a.s.sured Shazeen. ”Kasarax must pretend now that it's a right-of-way dispute, to conform with the Law.”

”If he can get pa.s.sengers,” Hasti broke in. ”Look!”

Kasarax was having trouble getting any of his sh.o.r.e gang aboard his tow-raft. The clash at the dock had put doubt in them; now they were having second thoughts about being dragged into the middle of a Swimmer dispute. Their chief, too, hesitated.

Kasarax lost his temper and thrashed himself up over his tow-raft, half onto the dock. Men drew back from the enormous bulk and the steaming, gaping mouth. Kasarax bent down at the chief.

”You'll do as I say! There's nowhere you can hide from me, even in that shelter you built under your house. If you make me, I'll dig you out like a stonesh.e.l.l from the lake bottom. And the whole time, you'll hear me coming!”

The sh.o.r.e-gang chief's nerve broke. White-faced, he scurried aboard the tow-raft, pulling along several unwilling followers and browbeating several others to accompany him.

”Mighty persuasive lad, that nephew of mine,” reflected Shazeen.

”Nephew?” Hasti burst out.