Part 23 (1/2)

The s.h.i.+elds can hold them.” Han took the throttle, and they rumbled over the plains. The freighter was sluggish, definitely sluggish.

Han shouted over the intercom. ”Hey, Your Highnesses, have you about got those generators loose?”

”Negative,” Isolder said over the intercom. ”Give us a few more minutes.”

”Might I remind you that this is an interdicted planet?” Han said. ”And we have a sky full of Imperial destroyers above us who are no doubt arming missiles at this very moment in hopes of blasting us to pieces.”

”Affirmative,” Isolder said. ”We're working on it!”

”I don't want you to work on it,” Han said. ”I want you to get those generators out of there?now!”

”I'll go help,” Luke said, and he hurried down the corridor. Teneniel was still standing by the hatch, looking at the door. Her face was pale. She glanced away guiltily.

”I'm sorry,” she told Luke. ”I won't let it happen again.”

Luke nodded, crawled down into the hold, up into a snug corner of the right sensor array fork. Isolder had already unbolted two generators from the mounts, and he had a huge wrench and tried vainly to loosen another bolt. Leia was pulling on the generators, trying to squeeze them past Isolder's body.

”Pull those generators out of the way if you can,” Luke urged Isolder, firing up his lightsaber. ”Leia, get up there and cap the coolant.” Luke slashed the heads off the remaining six bolts, then gave the last two generators a good kick. Both of them tumbled off the mounts. He and Isolder dragged the generators up to the main deck. They worked desperately to wrestle them onto the hatch gate, and just as they got the last one up, Leia finished capping the barrels of coolant. They dragged all the coolant to the hatch at once.

”Evacuate s.h.i.+p!” Han called over the intercom.

He had hardly said the words when he ran out from the c.o.c.kpit. ”We'll be flying over a lake in about thirty seconds. I saw it on my screens!”

Han hit the open latch on the hatch, and as the entry ramp dropped away, the coolant and generators went spilling out. Luke was surprised to see that they were only traveling five meters above ground at perhaps sixty kilometers per hour.

A blast rocked the s.h.i.+p, and Han looked up. ”Those Star Destroyers know we're here. Let's hope the s.h.i.+elds can hold for thirty seconds.”

A sudden barrage sent the s.h.i.+p bouncing, and Isolder grabbed the sensory array window and slipped down the ramp. He caught himself halfway, dropped the window, tried crawling back. A second barrage rocked the s.h.i.+p, sent him sliding farther.

Leia screamed, grabbed his hand. Moon-silvered water flashed beneath them, and Luke grabbed Teneniel's hand and pulled her from the s.h.i.+p. All five of them dropped together.

Luke plunged into the water, and his feet hit mud. He bobbed back up to the surface, looked around desperately for the others. Teneniel came up beside him, Han and Leia twenty yards away. Beyond them, Isolder floated up on his back.

Leia swam for Isolder. Luke looked out at the s.h.i.+p, flying over the lake.

After several more missile hits, the s.h.i.+elds died, and the s.h.i.+p exploded in a green fireball that mushroomed up into the night.

Luke swam to Leia and Isolder, found Isolder's face muddy. He'd hit the shallows and was coughing dirty water. ”He's lucky he didn't snap his neck,” Leia said.

Luke touched him, felt life still strong in him. ”He'll be all right.”

They walked a hundred yards through the shallows, lay down on the beach.

Luke could feel a tremor in the Force, like a thin probing finger of thought, Gethzerion stretching out with her mind, trying to find them.

They were less than ten kilometers from the city, in fairly clear view, and the Nightsisters had surely seen the s.h.i.+p blow up, but Gethzerion was using the Force to search for survivors. Luke cleared his mind, let Gethzerion's touch wander past him. He looked at Teneniel, saw her struggling for control. She suddenly relaxed, and Luke felt that the danger was over, at least temporarily. The probing touch moved out farther over the lake.

”Well,” Leia panted. ”That wasn't so hard!”

”Yeah,” Isolder agreed, still coughing. ”Maybe we should go back, try it again.”

”We need to hurry and get out of here,” Luke said. ”Gethzerion will be sending stormtroopers to look for survivors and see if she can salvage the wreck. I don't want them to find anything but our tracks.”

Luke's words seemed to sober the entire group. Luke tried to catch his breath.

”Luke, let me see your macrobinoculars,” Han said. Luke reached down to his waterproof pouch, pulled out the macrobinoculars. Han lay panting, looking up into the sky.

”What? What's up there?” Isolder asked.

”I don't know,” Han said. ”I saw it as we flew out. Something funny on the sensors.”

”What?” Leia asked.

”Satellites,” Han said, ”Zsinj's men have released thousands of satellites overhead.”

”Like what?” Isolder asked. ”Orbital mines?”

”Maybe,” Han said. ”Probably. Whatever they are, there's a lot of them.”

Leia looked up at the sky, searching among the stars. ”I don't know,” she said. ”I've got a bad feeling about this.” Luke followed her gaze. He could see the satellites, thousands of dim stars, as if the number of stars in the sky had doubled within the past few hours. He thought back, realized that the satellites must have been released near the same time he had his vision in the elevator. He closed his eyes, saw the vision again?eternal night.

Chapter 21.

A pale pink sun was just rising under clear skies and Luke was struggling to patch a breached container of coolant when the rancors came loping across the flats. The group had been working for less than fifteen minutes, and Luke sensed that they needed to leave soon. Gethzerion's stormtroopers would be here in another half hour.

Chewbacca bellowed in greeting, and Threepio shouted, ”Oh, thank goodness we found you!” He turned to Chewie and Artoo. ”See, I told you they would be all right. His Highness King Solo would never allow himself to get blown up!” His head swiveled back around. ”So, what are you doing out here?”

”We had to bail out of the s.h.i.+p before it got shot down,” Luke said. ”But we broke open a canister of coolant. I put some steel tape on it, but I'm waiting for the adhesive to dry. We're glad you showed up.”

”I'm the one who found you,” Threepio bragged. ”Thanks to my superior AA-one Verbobrain, I was able to crack that Imperial code!” Artoo squealed derisively, and Threepio added, ”With Artoo's help, of course. We were just on the way to the city to warn you!”

Han grunted, sat down on the barrel. ”Warn us of what, Mr. Verbobrain?”

”Gethzerion!” Threepio said. ”She planned to set some kind of trap for you!”

”Yeah, we sort of figured that out on our own,” Han said, ”when she sprung it.”

”But there's more,” Threepio said. ”Show them the latest message, Artoo.”

Artoo squealed, leaned forward on the rancor and focused his holo cams.

Two images appeared on the mud flats standing side by side: Gethzerion and a young officer wearing the slate gray uniform that identified him as one of Zsinj's generals.

Gethzerion said, ”General Melvar, you may inform Zsinj that we have captured General Han Solo, and we of the sisterhood await the shuttle he promised in trade.” The old witch stood silently, hands folded over her stomach. General Melvar calmly regarded her with a thrill-killer's glimmering eyes, scratched his jaw with a platinum fingernail shaped like a claw. Such cuticle implants were costly and painful, and those who wore them often cut themselves accidentally. General Melvar had the thin white facial scars to prove it.

”Warlord Zsinj has reconsidered his offer,” Melvar smiled coldly. ”He wishes to express his sorrow at having had to bomb the s.h.i.+p that left your compound, but now that Solo's Millennium Falcon has been destroyed, matters have changed. It was Solo's s.h.i.+p that we destroyed?”