by Troy Denning
Fortunately, Columi did not suffer such mental lapses for long. Marvid had narrowed his options to two. He could go to the residence hangar and attempt to escape in the blastboat that he and Craitheus kept for just these sorts of emergencies. Or he could use his biot, Savara Two, and flee through the gate.
The considerations for each option were numerous, but the ultimate decision hung on a few likelihoods. If he fled in the blastboat, Craitheus would certainly die, Base Prime would be lost, Marvid would be hunted by Jedi for the rest of his life, and Han Solo would live.
If Marvid fled through the gate—well, he didn’t really know what would happen. But the Jedi would be forced to follow him into the same dark-side nexus that had driven Barduun mad—and under those circumstances, Marvid’s superior intellect would prove decisive. With luck, he might even be able to eliminate the entire strike team and keep Base Prime secure. Besides, with Solo still trapped inside the gate chamber, Marvid would have a chance to kill him on the way through. That made the choice easy.
As Marvid and his two companions began to overtake the droid, it quickly moved to the wall and drew its tangle of arms in tight. Marvid was still leading his brother’s powerbody by remote control, and the droid glanced briefly in Craitheus’s direction before looking back to Marvid.
“Are we evacuating?” it asked. “Should I proceed to the hangar?”
“No need for that,” Marvid said. He moved to the opposite wall and led Craitheus past the droid. “It’s just a little Jedi problem. I’m on my way to take care of it now.”
“You are? I am relieved to—”
The droid’s reply ended in the snap-hiss of an igniting lightsaber. A head clunked to the floor, then more pieces began to drop as the lightsaber groaned and growled.
Marvid stopped to look back and found Savara Two hopping around the droid, hacking it apart with wild, frenzied attacks.
“Two!” he barked. “What are you doing?”
Two brought the blade down in a fierce strike, slicing the reservoir orb apart and unleashing a flood of cleaning solvent. “I’m practicing,” she said, “for the Jedi.”
“Then stop it,” Marvid said, trying to hide his dismay. In most ways, Two was a great disappointment to him. But at least the biot succeeded where it really counted—she had the Force. He started down the corridor again. “Anyway, you’re not ready to fight Jedi yet.”
“I feel ready,” Two said. She Force-sprang to his side, then began to whirl the lightsaber in a pretty red circle. “I’m ready to die for you, Marvid.”
“I would rather you didn’t,” Marvid said. His gaze was already fixed on a chromalloy vestibule ahead, where a pair of gleaming hatches hung on opposite walls. “You’re more use to me alive.”
“But I would fight them for you, Marvid.” Two reached over and stroked Marvid’s cranium. “I’d do anything for you.”
Marvid kept his eye on the glowing lightsaber, still ignited in her other hand. Like all of the third-generation biots based on Force-users, Two had impaired mental function. Craitheus believed that their technological core interacted with the Force to corrupt the development of their minds. Marvid suspected the monolith itself was causing the problem—an opinion Savara Raine had shared with him—but he was unsure how to counter it.
When Marvid did not reply to the biot’s profession of loyalty, she grew desperate and stepped in front of his powerbody. “Did you hear me, Marvid?” she asked. “I love you that much—enough to die for you.”
Marvid stopped, keeping a wary eye on the whirling blade in her hand. “I know,” he said. “I made you that way.”
Two gave him her sweetest smile. “I’m glad you did.” She whipped her lightsaber through the air in a mock attack. “But you should have let me kill that bonebag Savara. She didn’t deserve you.”
A sharp bang-clang echoed around the corner behind them, and Marvid knew the Jedi were catching up. He chose his next words carefully.
“Savara Raine is more useful to us alive. The Jedi will need to blame someone when Luke Skywalker dies—and I’d rather it not be me.” He used a pincer arm to motion Two toward the vestibule ahead. “Now, let’s hurry. The Jedi mustn’t catch us here.”
“You go,” Two said. “I can hold them off.”
“Not yet.” Marvid nudged her forward. “I need you with me.”
Two smiled. “You do?”
“Yes, so I can pass through the gate,” Marvid said. “I don’t have the Force, remember?”
“I remember.”
Two Force-leapt all the way to the hatch, then turned to face him. She began to whirl her lightsaber again, looking confused.
“But won’t the gate make us mad?” she asked. “The others went mad.”
Marvid struggled to remain patient. “The others weren’t Columi.”
Savara Too looked uncertain. “But I’m only part Columi,” she said. “A very small part.”
“That’s true,” Marvid said, catching up to her. “But you did say you would do anything for me.”
* * *
The battle was building to a new ferocity. Han could feel that in the growing rumble beneath his feet, hear it in the rising screech of wall-muted blaster fights. Every once in a while he thought he could hear yelling voices, sometimes even catch the muffled sizzle of a striking lightsaber. It was still too early to know whom he was hearing, but he was starting to hope that Ohali had been right—that Leia and her brother had survived the ambush and had finally come.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much Han could do to find out. He was completely safe as long as he stayed on the durasteel balcony. But the instant he stepped through the holographic wall that surrounded it, the cannon doors retracted and a synthetic voice started to ask for nonexistent authorization codes. Even so, there were three hatches on the outer rim of the security ring, and he had risked his life many times by trying everything he could think of to open them all.
That was the trouble with Columi traps. The longer you were stuck in one, the more insidious they grew.
Half afraid that the battle sounds he was hearing were just a new twist on the Qrephs’ torture games, Han grabbed his blaster rifle and went to stand across from the noisiest hatch. Through the one-way holograph, the hatch had a blue tint that made it look like a holograph itself. Near the control pad, there was a carbon star where he had fired a dozen bolts at it earlier.
Knowing that the pinging of a blaster bolt would carry through the battle din far better than his voice, Han fired a bolt into the door.
“Hey, Leia!” he yelled. “Is that you out there?”
He fired into the door again … and the holographic wall dissolved.
A synthetic voice spoke from the ceiling. “Access denied.”
“What?” Han yelled. It didn’t make any sense. He had fired at the doors dozens of times, and nothing like that had happened. “Wait, hold on …”
Out in the security ring, doors clunked open. Blaster cannons began to descend from the arched ceiling and pivot toward the balcony.
Han turned and hurled himself over the railing. He came down hard on his blaster rifle and felt his breath leave. The cannons roared, and ricochets boiled across the stone circle toward him. He saw darkness ahead and scrambled to shelter beneath the balcony, then lay there in the shadows, aching and gasping and cursing the entire Columi species.
How long the barrage lasted, Han could not guess. It felt like an eternity, but he was still struggling to fill his aching lungs when the rain of cannon bolts finally stopped. A strange stillness fell over the chamber, and for a second he lay beneath the balcony, listening to his ears ring.
Then the battle din grew abruptly sharper as a hatch door opened, and Han grew aware of an unwelcome emptiness in his hands. He looked out from under the balcony and found his blaster rifle lying in plain view out on the stone circle—exactly where he had left it in his scramble to escape the automatic cannons.
The bottom half of the handgrip had been blown apar
t. Otherwise, the weapon still looked functional.
The hatch closed again, and a familiar whir sounded from the security ring. From his position, Han couldn’t see who had arrived—but he knew that sound.
Powerbodies.
Staying on all fours so he could not be spotted from the security ring, Han scrambled out and started for his blaster rifle. He just hoped it still worked, because now that he had his shot at the Qrephs, he was going to take it.
As he moved, a female voice spoke near the hatch. “There’s a body.”
Han was astonished to recognize the voice. It sounded like Vestara Khai—a lot like Vestara Khai—except it was not quite so cold and confident.
“Keep looking,” Marvid replied. “That’s Barduun.”
Han glanced up to see if he could identify the woman, but the far edge of the balcony continued to block his view of the security ring.
“There’s another body,” the voice said. “This one’s a she, and she’s a biot.”
Creepy Leia.
Han reached the blaster rifle. He snatched it on the go and scrambled the rest of the way across the circle.
“I don’t care about those bodies,” said Marvid. “We need to find Solo. The security cannons should have torn him apart when I dropped the holograph.”
Fuming, Han ducked back under the balcony. Marvid had known he was trapped in here. He and Craitheus had probably been toying with him the entire time, watching on some hidden surveillance cam and laughing at Han’s efforts to escape.
The whirring stopped at the edge of the balcony. “He’s not out here,” Marvid said. “Take a look inside the stasis circle.”
“The stasis circle?”
Marvid sighed. “The circle of black stone.”
“Oh, that stasis circle.”
“And search under the balcony,” Marvid added. “If Solo survived, he will be there.”
Okay, so maybe Han was only one step ahead. But he still had a shot—and he was going to take it.
“And remember not to step into the stasis circle yet,” Marvid continued, “not until I’m waiting and I give the order.”
“I won’t, Marvid.” A pair of small feet stepped on the balcony and began to cross toward the railing. “I’m not going anywhere without you.”
The battle din outside the hatch was continuing to build as the fighting drew closer. Marvid would have to make his move soon—whatever that move was. Han began to belly-crawl, trying to move into position to attack from behind as the Columi entered the stasis circle.
“Oh, wait.”
The small feet turned and began to trail behind Han—then abruptly grew silent.
“I found him!”
The snap-hiss of an igniting lightsaber sounded from the same spot as the voice. Han cursed under his breath. He might not know who she was, but he had a pretty good idea what she was.
A biot—and, like Ditto, she could use the Force.
Han rolled away, just in time to avoid being split down the center as the droning lightsaber slashed through the balcony. He started to bring his blaster tip up—then thought about the ricochets and rolled again. The blade came again, this time so hard that the tip struck the stone beneath the balcony and bounced back up.
Han spun his legs around ninety degrees, gambling that any biot inexperienced enough to put that much power behind a lightsaber attack would not be thinking much about strike patterns.
As expected, the third attack came down perpendicular to the first two. Now she had cut three sides of a square. Hoping for the fourth, he rolled back the other way—and that was when the Solo luck finally returned.
A tremendous bang shook the chamber, followed instantly by the clang of a blown hatch hitting something metal—like a powerbody, maybe. Han rolled back the way he had come, but the biot’s mind was no longer on him.
“Marvid!” she screamed. “Marvid, I’ll save—”
Her cry was drowned out by two short bursts of cannon fire. A dozen meters to the right, a three-meter section of railing dropped onto the stasis circle, both ends still glowing. An instant later, a pair of powerbodies shot through the gap and dropped to the dark stone.
Han was already blasting. The first three bolts ricocheted off the armored chassis of the lead powerbody, which promptly spun around. Strapped into it was the half-dead form of Craitheus Qreph, a blaster burn through his huge cranium, another through his tiny torso. But the Columi’s condition didn’t stop his powerbody from leveling a launching tube in Han’s direction.
Continuing to fire, Han rolled, paused … saw the orange streak of a mini-rocket flash past, then rolled again and felt the heat of a small detonation behind him.
Han fired again, rolled again—and narrowly escaped being killed when the biot’s lightsaber came slashing through the balcony. The second powerbody spun around, pointing its launching arm in his direction, and Marvid’s amplified voice boomed across the stasis circle.
“Forget Solo!” he ordered. “Come to me now.”
Han faked a roll, then cringed away when Marvid fell for the feint and sent a mini-rocket streaking past. Han aimed for the launcher arm—only to have a bigheaded, giant-eyed version of Vestara Khai drop down to block his shot. She thumbed off her lightsaber and made a sweeping gesture with her hands.
Han felt a Force nudge—not much, but enough to deflect his aim. A string of bolts shot across the stasis circle and vanished beneath the balcony. He rolled again just to be safe, then brought his blaster rifle back toward his targets, who were suddenly nothing but shadows, shimmering above a chromalloy shaft so deep it might have plunged all the way to the Galactic Core.
Han managed to squeeze off three quick bolts, but he had no idea whether he hit anyone. All he caught was a glimpse of Marvid’s silhouette, raising a pincer arm in a rude farewell. A curtain of silver radiance rose to engulf the three figures, then an amplified voice said, “You lose, Solo. I win.”
The radiance slowly sparkled into nothingness, and when it was gone, so were the Qrephs and their biot.
Marvid’s parting words only made Han’s jets burn that much hotter. The Columi might have gotten away for the moment, but this wasn’t over yet—not even close. Amid the screeching blaster bolts and booming blaster cannons out in the corridor, he could hear the oscillating drone of whirling lightsabers.
And voices. Familiar voices.
Still holding his blaster rifle, Han crawled from beneath the balcony.
“Han?”
That voice was familiar and female, and it made Han’s heart jump.
“Han, are you in here?” Leia called. He could tell she was using the Force to search for him, because her steps were starting to ring across the balcony, moving toward the edge where he had been hiding. “Han, are you—”
“Down here!” Han called.
He rose and turned to find Leia racing across the balcony. With half her hair missing, a combat vac suit splattered in blue Nargon blood, and a comlink headset worn over a face still red with healing burns, she looked about the way Han felt—and she was still the prettiest woman Han had ever seen.
Behind her, a single YVH stood out in the security ring, one red eye studying the arched ceiling. Luke was still out in the corridor, just beyond the blown hatch, one hand using his lightsaber to bat blaster bolts aside, the other gesturing to someone Han could not see.
A synthetic voice said, “Access denied.”
Leia cocked her head, turning to look toward the sound, and Han’s heart leapt into his throat.
“Leia, down here!” Han yelled, reaching toward her. “Now!”
Leia was already vaulting over the rail. Han caught her by the hand—and felt the stone go instantly soft. He looked down and saw the stasis circle turning translucent beneath their feet.
“Better comm Luke, if you can.” As Han spoke, a deep, vine-draped pit opened beneath their feet. “Tell him we’re going after the Qrephs.”
The mound of dead Nargons began to shudder again. Ben wat
ched in amazement as two more of the huge reptiloids appeared, crawling out of a body pile so huge it clogged the corridor. The Nargons were met by a hail of YVH cannon bolts, and they quickly fell as motionless as their fellows.
Their Mandalorian officers had bugged out about five minutes earlier, and the Nargon security force had instantly become more of a nuisance than a danger. And there lay the true peril, Ben knew. Faced with such a mindless foe, it would be easy to grow complacent.
Or to simply run out of power cells.
Ben sensed a presence behind him, then glanced back to find his father approaching.
“I’m going after Han and Leia,” Luke said. Instead of attempting to shout above the battle noise, he used the throat mic to transmit his voice over the strike team’s comm net. “I think they went inside the monolith.”
“They what?” asked Tahiri. She was kneeling behind one of their surviving battle droids, placing some charges that would slow down a Nargon charge—if the reptiloids ever figured a way to get past the pile of bodies. “Was that part of the plan?”
“It was unexpected,” Luke admitted. “But they’re following the Qrephs, and the Qrephs killed thirty thousand people at Sarnus alone. We can’t let that pair escape inside the monolith.”
“Yeah, that could be bad.” Ben shot a glance toward the hatch through which the Qrephs had fled. They had just lost a battle droid taking out the automatic security system, and he wasn’t eager to add his father to the casualty list. “Be careful in there.”
“I think the YVH cleared the way for me,” Luke said. “I’m more concerned about the situation here.”
“We’ll be okay, Dad,” Ben said. “We have this under control.”
“I know you do,” Luke said. “But stay in touch with the Falcon in case you need to evacuate—”
“And keep an eye on our other approaches,” Ben interrupted. “And pay attention to our danger sense, because this still smells like a trap. I said we have it, Dad.”
An expression that was equal parts pride and love came to Luke’s face, and that was when Ben realized there was something his father was not telling him.
