by Martha Wells
Without the threat of the crushers, and with the remote on a less violent setting, she could actually see how this could be an exciting game. For other people, not her.
Leia ducked under the Twi’lek’s attempt to send her careening off and came up with a clear path to the remote. Metara flew past overhead to cover her. Leia shot toward the remote, ready to swing her foot pads up to push it into the nearest crusher.
She heard a whump as the containment field dissolved and re-formed. Just a glitch, she thought, distracted. A shadow fell over her, and she realized something large loomed directly overhead. Then Metara slammed into her and knocked them both away.
They spun together for an instant, and Leia ended up on top with a good view of the thing that had just dropped out of the darkness at the top of the cavern and into the arena. It was an enormous, barrel-shaped droid, at least three meters tall and maybe four meters wide, and it bristled with appendages, each with a drilling or cutting tool or claw at the end.
The other players had scattered. Metara gasped, “It’s a mining droid.”
The droid’s head rotated, revealing a set of glass ocular devices for taking in visual data and a large round orifice for testing samples. The orifice opened, bared a set of blades for grinding and cutting, and emitted a high-pitched shriek of pure rage.
The Twi’lek woman hovered nearby, and Leia heard her spit an astonished curse. “It’s an insane mining droid,” Leia said.
A glance up at Viest, now standing at the edge of the arena to watch, told Leia that this was no accident. “I’ll draw it off, you try to destroy the remote.”
“But—” Metara began. Leia ignored her and shot away to the other side of the droid.
The hauler dropped into darkness for what felt like forever, long enough for Han to entertain some nightmarish scenarios, mostly about dropping suddenly into a vacuum. Then it made another abrupt turn that nearly threw him off and suddenly moved forward again. Han adjusted his grip and took a deep breath. That was bad. Shooting forward again wasn’t exactly a picnic, but it was better than waiting for the hauler to jerk and scrape him off on the shaft wall. His fingers were going numb, his hands were starting to cramp from holding on so tightly, and sweat made his skin itch.
But after a few moments he realized the darkness wasn’t nearly as impenetrable as it had been at first. He twisted to look over his shoulder. Ahead the tunnel brightened a little, a blue-gray light gradually appearing at the far end, as the hauler rapidly approached a round exit into a lighted chamber. At least it isn’t a blast furnace, Han told himself. He hoped.
The hauler shot out of the tunnel into a big shadowy space, then slammed to a halt so abruptly that Han almost lost his grip and his legs were flung straight out. He strangled back a yell, but then his weight eased off his strained arms; the gravity was much lighter here. He swore in weary relief and pulled himself atop the hauler.
Flexing his sore hands, he looked around. He was in a huge cavern, mostly shadowed except for luma-light falling down from a source a couple of hundred meters above him. More haulers like the one he was on and some huge repulsor ore carts drifted aimlessly, though some were moored to projections in the walls.
The hauler creaked and jerked, and started to move again—downward. Han decided it was time to get off the tour. He braced his feet against the top, then pushed up and off. He had just enough momentum to reach a drifting ore cart; he grabbed onto the wide rim and clung to it. Watching the hauler vanish into shadow below, he took a moment to enjoy the sensation of not plunging into darkness. Then he looked around for his next perch.
The grappling hook in his satchel wasn’t going to do him any good, since he couldn’t throw it in low g. He could hook it onto something and play out the fibercord to give himself a safety line, though. But he had to have something to push off from as he moved around the chamber; without a source of propulsion he could get stuck down here, floating around with no way to reach the walls of the cavern, until the pirates found him or he starved to death. He still had a comlink in his pocket, but it was the one locked into the secure frequency for the Gamble. He could change the settings and try to get hold of the Aegis if he did get stuck. But he preferred not to get stuck.
He couldn’t spot any likely place from here, so he climbed around the edge of the hauler, trying to get a better view of the nearer wall. Hah, there we go. Some distance along the wall, six flatbed lifters were moored to a metal dock standing out from the rock. Han mapped out his route, then he pushed off and made the long jump to a drifting hauler, scrambled across it and down the side, and then shoved off to drift just within reach of the last lifter.
The lifters were flat slabs of metal about a meter and a half wide and three meters long, with a low rail around the outside, a small repulsor propulsion system, and a limited control panel. They had probably been used to transport miners, droids, and small equipment around this giant space, or up and down the larger traverses. Judging by the coating of wet dust and muck on the metal, they hadn’t been used in years.
First Han had to find one with a little power still left; then he had to pry up the panel and tinker with it to get it started. He had forgotten how big a pain working in low g was, especially when he had to hold his handlight in his mouth to keep it from drifting away.
Finally the lifter’s control console lit up and the repulsors started to hum. Feeling vindicated, Han pulled himself back to the control panel and slid his boots under the safety clips that kept the lifter’s driver from floating away.
All right, Solo, where to now? He looked around, getting his bearings. He needed another way out. He could go back up the tunnel, but he didn’t want to run into another automated hauler and end up repeating this whole adventure. He decided to go up and try to find a passage back into the asteroid’s corridors that would be closer to the level he had started on. Gripping the safety rail, he steered the lifter slowly upward, toward the brighter glow of light from the upper part of the cavern.
The Twi’lek woman had the same idea as Leia, and they shot toward the far side of the arena together, drawing the droid’s attention. They dodged back and forth as the droid flailed at them. It should have worked, with one of the other players taking the opportunity to knock the remote through a crusher and end the game.
But the remote was clearly programmed to make things as difficult as possible. It darted around close to the droid’s barrel-shaped body, swung around its drill-tipped limbs, and lured the other players into danger.
Leia watched hopefully as the remote wheeled away from Metara and one of the Ishori dived down almost within reach of it. At the moment she didn’t care who won the game, as long as somebody did. Though, she reminded herself with grim resolve, they had no guarantee that Viest would stop the game as she had promised. When the remote was destroyed, the flightmaster might change the rules again.
Then the droid swung its drilling arm and struck the Ishori across the back. He flew across the arena and bounced off the containment field with a fizzle of energy. He drifted, his body limp. The other Ishori cried out and shot over to him.
Leia set her jaw. This had to end before that happened to all the players. As the droid turned, she dived in close to circle it and followed the gleam of the remote. The droid roared and turned toward her, but then it swung away, distracted by someone around the other side.
Leia ducked and suddenly found the remote barely a meter away. She lunged for it, gritting her teeth as its searing blast grazed her right arm. At the last moment she flipped and used the pads on her feet to slam it toward the nearest crusher.
The Twi’lek yelled and swooped in to intercept her. But the droid’s drilling arm flailed and slammed into the Twi’lek. One of the woman’s foot pads flew off, sending her into a spin right toward the crusher’s maw. Leia reacted by pure instinct and surged forward with her foot pads to grab the woman’s leg. She twisted around and used her pads to yank the Twi’lek to a stop, barely a meter from the crusher. Ther
e was no doubt the crusher’s deadly field was operating; the ozone it generated filled Leia’s lungs. The droid loomed over them, reached for them with four sets of arms, all tipped with cutters or spinning drills. Got to get close, Leia thought, and propelled herself and the Twi’lek toward it.
They shot past its reaching arms and struck its metal body. Leia had time to realize that her hurried theory had been correct. The way the droid was constructed, it couldn’t bend its limbs back far enough to reach them with its pincers and drills and cutters when they were this close to it.
Confused, the droid shrieked and clawed for them as they scrambled away around the curve of its torso. Leia felt a glancing blow, and a line of pain opened up across her back. One of its claws had grazed her; she gasped but kept scrabbling. The droid’s head rotated down to glare at them, and two arms slammed down around them like a cage.
The Twi’lek grabbed the base of one arm, but couldn’t wrestle past it. Leia gripped the dented metal body behind her and lifted her feet to try to use the repulsors to force the arms open.
The droid jerked and emitted that high-pitched metallic scream. Under the ear-piercing noise, Leia heard a thunk and a grinding sound. She exchanged a startled glance with the Twi’lek, then looked wildly around. The arch of the containment field’s dome wasn’t far above the droid’s head, which meant they must be close to the edge of the field … “It backed into the crusher!” Leia said aloud.
Another thunk vibrated through the droid’s body, and the grinding became louder. Not only was the droid caught in the crusher, it was being pulled farther in. Oh, no, Leia thought.
The Twi’lek must have realized the same thing at the same moment, because moving as one, they both flung themselves at the droid’s nearest arm, using all their strength to try to push past. The Twi’lek had lost both her foot pads and didn’t have much leverage. Leia didn’t think they had a chance, but then she saw Metara, the Twi’lek’s crewmate, and even the remaining Ishori closing in on them, all grabbing for the arms.
Then the droid wrenched itself out of the crusher, scattering the other players, and lurched sideways and then back. Dragging Leia and the Twi’lek with it, it spun into the containment field. The field sizzled and Leia braced herself against the metal, ready to fight her way free when the droid stopped moving. A flare of energy blinded her. She winced, and suddenly the droid jerked again and plunged down and away from the arena.
It had shorted out the containment field, Leia realized as the droid plunged downward into the dark of the cavern. And where is it taking us? The light failed as they dropped away from the arena. With all her strength, Leia shoved at the arms that were pinning them, the Twi’lek with her, but the droid just tightened its hold.
Blasterfire sounded somewhere nearby. Leia hoped that meant someone was firing at the droid and not at them or the other players, but it was too close to be coming from the arena. A loud metal bang rang out and the droid jerked and spun. What the—Leia had time to think. Then it happened again. And again.
A grinding noise inside the droid deepened in pitch until it made Leia’s bones vibrate. Something rattled inside it, then wheezed. Its grip on them relaxed and the arms fell away. Still wary, Leia pushed herself off with her pads, and drew the Twi’lek with her.
The droid rolled, the last of its momentum carrying it away. As its head passed them, she saw it was partly slagged from several blaster bolt impacts, but it must have been the last hit that had finally taken it out. Its eyes sparked and went dark, and it drifted slowly away … giving Leia a clear view of what had struck it.
A flatbed repulsor lifter had rammed the droid. No, Leia corrected herself, staring downward in amazement. Han Solo had rammed the droid with a flatbed repulsor lifter.
The lifter hung just below them, the whole front end dented in with the force of the multiple impacts on the droid’s metal carapace. Han was holding on to the railing with one hand to keep from drifting off; the other gripped the lifter’s small control unit. He looked up at her and said, “Next time, I want to go somewhere else on vacation.”
“Me, too,” Leia agreed. She was torn between blank surprise, deep relief that she wasn’t about to be ripped apart by a giant droid, and annoyance that Han wasn’t where she had meant him to stay until she got back. This storm of conflicting emotion had happened to her before, always coinciding with Han’s sudden appearances, so maybe she should just stop being surprised, at least. “And what are you doing here, by the way?”
“I’m scouting,” Han said, eyeing the dead droid warily. “What are you doing here?”
“The pirates—” Leia realized there was no time to give even a brief summary. “It’s a long story.”
The Twi’lek had kept her gaze on the arena above and now hissed, “They’re coming! Send your man away before they see him!”
“We’re just friends,” Leia snapped by habit. She hesitated, but Metara was still up there, and the Aegis was still trapped in dock. If she bolted off with Han, Viest would hunt them down through the mine, and she would have no doubt that Leia had something to hide. No, the Twi’lek was right, it was better to stay here and not let Viest know anything had happened except the accidental death of her pet killer droid. Leia pulled one of the repulsor pads off her feet and handed it down to Han. “There, get back to the ship! Or whatever you were doing.”
At least Han trusted her enough not to argue. He took the pad and slid it onto his arm. “See you later.” He propelled himself in a backward flip over the flatbed lifter and vanished into the darkness of the lower part of the chamber.
Leia looked up and saw figures appear over the edge of the platform. To the Twi’lek, she said, “Tell them the droid fell onto the lifter.”
The Twi’lek nodded. “I owe you a debt. My name is Anakaret and I pledge to pay it.”
“I accept your debt. I’m Leia, and I’m with the Aegis.”
Anakaret glanced at her. “If they let us live, I’ll try to come speak to you.”
The technician, the Aqualish, and several guards with repulsor pads came to survey the damage. While the technician propelled himself around the drifting droid carcass, angrily assessing its injuries, the Aqualish handed Anakaret a couple of new pads so she could steer herself back up to the ledge. He said to Leia, “Viest isn’t going to like this. It took a lot of time to program that droid to be this crazy.”
Leia didn’t try to keep the acid out of her voice. “We tried to be careful, but I suppose it was just too old for this kind of thing.” The technician glared at her over the droid’s dented carapace, but the Aqualish didn’t seem displeased.
As they lifted back up toward the arena, Leia saw Metara and Anakaret’s teammate waiting on the ledge, their repulsor pads off. The Ishori who had been hit by the droid lay on the floor, unmoving; one side of his body was mottled with dark green bruises. His companion sat mournfully beside him. The human man ran to Anakaret as soon as she landed and threw himself into her arms. She patted his head reassuringly.
“Leia!” Metara rushed forward. “Leia, are you all right?”
Leia wasn’t in the mood for Metara’s concern. She nodded toward the Ishori. “Will he recover?”
Metara looked back, wincing. “He’s dead.”
So this idiotic game had claimed a life for Viest’s amusement. “At least the droid is out of commission. I’m assuming Viest won’t try to force the survivors to play a rematch.”
“But you won,” Metara said. Anakaret’s human seconded her, pointing emphatically at one of the crushers while speaking in a language Leia didn’t understand.
“I did?” Leia frowned, startled. “When?”
“Right before the droid grabbed you,” Metara told her. “You knocked the remote toward the crusher with your foot pads and the field caught it and pulled it in.”
“Oh.” Leia knew she had knocked the remote toward the crusher, but hadn’t thought it had gone all the way in. “So we won.” All it had taken was one death and her and
Anakaret almost being torn to pieces.
But she didn’t have time to contemplate the victory. From above them, Viest said, “Oh, I’m calling it a forfeit.”
The flightmaster stood on the steps to the balcony, surveying the players with a tight smile. “You damaged the arena. Those containment fields aren’t cheap, and the generators are burned out.”
“You can’t be serious!” Metara blurted.
Her eyes narrowed, Viest said, “Oh, I’m serious.”
Anakaret swore, and her crewman threw his remaining repulsor pad down. Leia set her jaw. She knew it was useless to protest. Fortunately, there was no way the cutthroat, pirate-backing woman she was supposed to be would let it go, either. Not bothering to hide her anger, she said, “Your droid damaged the containment field after I destroyed the remote.”
Viest moved deliberately down the steps, watching her closely. Leia knew she was being read, and she knew there was nothing the flightmaster was going to see at the moment but a strong desire to blast her head off. Viest said, “What, no protest that releasing the droid into the arena was unfair? I’m surprised.”
“I’m not,” Leia said. “I knew something like that would happen. But I didn’t think you’d cheat the winner out of the prize, like a child tipping over a game because she doesn’t want to lose.”
Viest went still for a moment. Then she bared her teeth in something that wasn’t a smile. “You need time to cool down.”
I need a lot of things at the moment, Leia thought, and that isn’t one of them. “How about a rematch?” she said. “Just you and me. Have you got another droid?”
There was a startled and uneasy stir among the pirate spectators. Viest laughed. “You’d like that. No, you and Metara go back to her ship and wait. Maybe we’ll talk about your offer again. When I feel like it. Oh, and don’t try to leave. I’ll broadcast a bounty on the Aegis and you’ll be blown to pieces before you make it out of dock.” Her smile was pointed. “Maybe I’ll do that anyway.”
