Part 41 (2/2)

Han hoped they hadn't gone too deep. Some of those corridors were narrow, and made of rock. That rock would be very fragile in explosions like this.

As he stepped onto the ground, hands groped at his legs. People he didn't know called out to him. He stopped several times to move debris off trapped smugglers, then helped them to a place away from the fires. The smoke was getting so thick, it was impossible to see. If he wanted to save the Falcon and the Luck, he would have to work in the bay.

But that meant leaving Chewie and Lando to their own devices. He could mentally picture Chewie, trapped beneath a rock, Lando crushed beside him. Yet Han knew that the odds of finding them at all were small.

He had to try.

He stepped over debris and flaming metal. This devastation looked similar to the devastation on Coruscant. Only there, he had heard one explosion.

Here he had heard several.

The cries were growing more and more pitiful. He seemed to be one of the few uninjured people in the entire area. He couldn't pa.s.s these people by. He had to start helping, and hope that Chewie and Lando were getting equal consideration from someone else.

He wound his way around several flaming piles to the Falcon. Then he went inside, grabbed the fire extinguishers, and came out blasting. The foam put out the fires nearby, leaving charred bits of metal, and several charred bodies.

Han gagged, but kept going. Fires first, because if he didn't do that, the oxygen would disappear, the smoke would get worse, and people would die. Or at least that was what he told himself, what he had to tell himself, as he heard more and more cries for help.

Tentacles, hands, fingers, all manner of beings were reaching for him. He almost felt ashamed for being so healthy. He was working faster and faster, trying to put out more and more fires. The smoke was clearing, at least in the area he was working in, and as he looked up, he saw Blue doing the same work near him, using extinguishers from her Skipper.

She was covered in soot and ash, just as he was, but unlike him, she also had bruises, and her arms were bleeding. The back of her runic had torn, and he saw burns running along her skin. Her lips were moving as she worked, and tears were streaming down her face.

He had never seen Blue so upset.

He left her to her fires, and started on another set. More smugglers hurried out of s.h.i.+ps. One Sull.u.s.tan vessel poured extinguisher out of its nozzle, and slowly, slowly, the fires died.

Leaving only smoking remains, and bodies.

And the wounded, staggering through the mess like the walking dead.

Han wiped the sweat off his face with the back of his arm. He was already exhausted, overwhelmed by the magnitude of cleaning the Run.

Of saving all the lives.

He grabbed a Ssty that was digging through a pile of smoking rubble.

Except for a few small burned patches on the Ssty's fur, it looked all right, as stunned as Han was, but all right.

”Get the medical droids. All of them,” he said. ”We'll make an aid station on the Lady Luck.”

”Droids?” The Ssty swiveled its small head. Its eyes were red-rimmed.

”That's a sick joke, mister.” It wrenched itself out of his grip and kept digging.

Han frowned. ”Come on. We need to help these folks.”

”Not with droids,” the Ssty said.

”I don't understand.” The Ssty stopped digging again, sighed, and wiped its claws on its fur. ”Where were you when this happened?”

”In my s.h.i.+p.” The Ssty nodded. Its little face was somber, its red-rimmed eyes filling with a blue gooey substance. ”The droids did this,” it said, and turned back to its digging.

Han frowned, picturing droids on attack, firing weapons. But that made no sense. It wasn't possible. He had fought beside droids before, and while they were clever, they never turned on their masters.

Ever.

”What are you looking for?” he asked.

”My mate,” the Ssty said.

Han felt his heart stop for a moment, remembering Leia in the bombed-out wreck of the Senate building, that horrible feeling he had had as he ran there, that feeling that he had just lost the most important thing in his life. Without hesitating, he dug into the hot metal, wincing as it burned his fingers, pulling pieces away that the Ssty wasn't strong enough to lift. ”The droids attacked us?”

”They-” the Ssty's voice broke. ”They exploded.” All those pops, those explosions, were droids. ”All the droids?”

”Some of them.” The Ssty was digging faster. ”Enough.” Han pulled a huge chunk of metal away. Beneath it was another Ssty, arms over its head, claws extended.

Eyes open.

With a yowl, the Ssty pulled its mate free. The lower half of its body was crushed flat. It was clearly dead.

”I'm sorry,” Han said. The words were not enough, and the Ssty didn't hear him. Its yowls had risen to blend with the other cries, and the blue stuff was staining its white fur. It kept brus.h.i.+ng the hair away from its mate's lifeless eyes, and rocking, as if the motion would bring the mate back.

Han backed away, unable to watch the little creature's pain. The droids exploded. And the bombed interior looked like the Senate Hall.

All those senators with their protocol droids, their translator droids, their a.s.sistant droids. Several explosions at once would feel like one big a.s.sault.

And leave no trace, because the sources of the bombs would be destroyed along with the bombs themselves.

He made his way toward the Falcon, not quite able to think. No medical droids. So they would have to rely on whatever medical talent was on the Run. No one would come here to help. No one would be able to navigate the entrance without a map.

What a disaster.

”Han!” The voice was rea.s.suringly familiar. At the base of the Falcon's ramp, Lando stood with Chewbacca. Lando's s.h.i.+rt was singed, and the fur on Chewbacca's chest was nearly gone, but they were all right.

Han had never been so glad to see anyone in his life. ”I thought you were dead,” he said.

”We thought the same about you.”

”What are we going to do?” Lando shook his head. ”There are a few ancient FX-7's around, but they're already overworked. And most of the medical personnel were killed when their new medical droids exploded.” Chewbacca growled.

”I thought of the same thing, Chewie,” Han said. ”This is exactly what happened on Coruscant, but somehow they kept it isolated to one building.

I don't know how they thought to target the Run.”

”They didn't,” Lando said. ”Most of the droids here are stolen.” Han felt cold. ”You mean this attack was meant for someone else?”

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