Star Wars - Tatooine Ghost

by Tatooine Ghost (by Troy Denning)

  Leia half turned and gave him a tight little smile. "Married less than a year, and you already know me so well."

  Chewbacca groaned a warning about being sick.

  "Then you'd better do it now," Han retorted, "because I don't think you're going to have a chance later."

  He told them about the stormtroopers Keesa was leading around to cover their escape route, then activated a surveillance lock on the officer. The datapad would now show the Imperial wherever he went. If it came down to a fight-and that seemed likely-Han wanted to know where that officer was at all times.

  Leia tapped the door buzzer, as though that would make the Squibs respond faster.

  Han brought up a schematic of the building. The luxury wing was a four-room annex in the rear of the Sidi Driss, separated from the rest of the inn by a locked security door. The officer was already passing the first of two intersections before the main corridor dead-ended at the security door.

  "What's taking those Squibs so long?" Leia complained.

  "Whatever it is," Han said, "we either have to leave them or find another way to wake 'em."

  "We can't leave them," Leia said. "They know too much." Chewbacca extended his climbing claws and ripped the control off the wall, setting off an alarm buzzer in the room. He

  sorted through the tangle of wires, then quickly found the ones he needed, stripped all three by running them between his fangs a crossed the bared lines.

  The oversized door slid open to reveal Emala filling water bottles at the bar sink. Sligh and Grees were struggling to stuff more bottles into a trio of tattered backpacks larger than they were. "Humans don't know the meaning of privacy?" Sligh asked. "Sorry to interrupt your stealing," Leia shot back. "But we've got Imperials coming."

  "Imperials?" Sligh hoisted his pack onto his back and__

  amazingly-managed to remain standing beneath the weight. "Why didn't you say so?"

  Han checked the borrowed datapad and found the storm-troopers at the wing security door, the squad leader wiring a slicer box into the control panel.

  Leia peered over his shoulder. "Trapped again," she observed. "How do you want to handle it?"

  Han glanced around the ornate corridor. He found a repulsor couch hovering in front of a decorative panel that depicted a watery oasis he was sure existed nowhere on Tatooine. "The secret exit behind there?"

  Leia shook her head and pointed to the door across from the Squibs' room. "Through there. It's not a real room. Maybe we can pull a Smuggler's Fade?"

  Han shook his head. "This officer's too good for that." He pointed back toward their door and the one opposite. "We'd better hit them with a crossfire ambush. Everyone into those rooms."

  As the Squibs lumbered past, Han plucked a jug of water out of Sligh's pack.

  "Hey! You're unbalancing-"

  "It's not to late too bait our trap," Han warned.

  Sligh fell silent, Han tossed the water jug under the repulsor couch, then followed Leia and Sligh into the first suite. Chewbacca took C-3PO and the other two Squibs into the room opposite, and they were barely inside before the security doors opened. Han watched on the datapad as the officer and squad leader cross-stitched cautionary blasterfire through the doorway. The two subordinates charged down the corridor with their weapons at the ready, then stopped at the end, one turning around to cover up the corridor while the other peered through the still-open door of the Squibs' suite.

  "Clear!" this one reported. He glanced around the corridor, then kneeled down in front of the repulsor couch and withdrew the water jug Han had thrown under there. "It looks like they've used

  the escape door."

  "You're quite certain?" The officer was careful to remain hidden behind the security door bulkhead. "You're willing to wager your life on that?"

  "Sir, yes I am."

  "Then you are a waste of stormtrooper armor," the officer said. "Remove it so the Rebels won't damage valuable Imperial resources killing you."

  "Sir?"

  "That is an order, trooper." The officer looked across the doorway to his squad leader. "Summon the owner's escorts. We'll need them to flush the scum out."

  "Hutt slime!" Han turned to his companions. "We have to take em now. Sligh, you hit the floor and fire down the corridor. Leia?"

  "Yes?"

  "You stay back and be the surprise reserve-"

  "Han?" "Yeah?"

  "Not a chance."

  Han sighed. "Okay, you and I fire across the corridor at the officer. Chewie takes the sergeant, and Grees and Emala help Sligh."

  "Sounds good," Leia said.

  "No way!" Sligh objected. "How come the Squibs have to drop on the floor?"

  "Because you're closer," Leia said.

  "And I've seen you shoot," Han said. "You couldn't hit the officer."

  "Okay, no need to get nasty," Sligh said, slipping out of his heavy pack. "Just asking."

  Han shook his head, then turned to Leia. "One more thing."

  "I know." She rose on her toes and kissed him hard and long. It was almost enough to make him forget what they were doing, especially when she finally stopped. "You love me."

  "Yeah, that, too." Han flashed her a scoundrel's grin. "But what I really wanted to ask is did you remember to recharge my blaster?"

  Leia's eyes started to flash, then she caught Han's expression and got a pinched little smile.

  "What do you think?" She propped a hand on her hip. "Can we get on with it?"

  "Just trying to give that stormtrooper time to get out of his armor."

  Han angled the datapad so that she and Sligh could see that the stormtrooper was obeying his officer's command-even if he was starting with his shin protection. Then, keeping one eye on the data-pad, Han activated his comlink and gave the others across the hall their instructions.

  "And what am I to do, Captain Solo?" C-3PO asked. "Don't get left behind."

  The officer cocked his head as though listening to a voice inside his helmet, then glanced toward the Solo suite. Though Han had expected the Imperials to be listening for comlink transmissions, he had not thought they would be so quick to pinpoint the source. The Chimaera's crew was fast starting to look like one of the Empire's best.

  Han dropped the datapad in the pocket of his sand cloak, then simultaneously commed Chewbacca and depressed the OPEN button. "Go!"

  The door hissed, and Han and Leia began to pour blasterfire out through the widening gap. Several bolts ricocheted off the officer's helmet and breastplate, forcing him to roll into a corner behind the security door bulkhead.

  Chewbacca's bowcaster chuffed once from the door opposite. A loud clatter sounded from the direction he had been firing. The acrid fumes of scorched plastoid began to fill the air, and the squad leader's kicking boots slid into view on the other side of the security door.

  Suddenly, the corridor was quiet. Han looked down to find Sligh lying between his feet, no longer firing.

  "I thought I told you-"

  "Both dead," Sligh said, rising. "I guess our aim isn't that-"

  "Han!"

  Leia jerked him out of the doorway a few milliseconds ahead of a line of blaster bolts.

  "Be careful, will you?"

  Sligh dropped to his belly and wiggled back into the room, the fur on his back smoking from a near miss. Han tried to return fire

  and nearly lost his hand as the blaster bolts continued to pour through the door. He felt a hand on his hip, then glanced back to see Leia pulling the datapad from his cloak pocket.

  "It's only the officer," Leia said. "He's out there alone." Han peered at the display over her shoulder and saw the storm-trooper lying on the floor at the corner of the security door, arms crossed with a blaster rifle in one hand and blaster pistol in the other, keeping up a constant barrage of fire.

  "So much for lower training standards and sagging morale," Leia said.

  "Yeah, you'd think the Emperor had come back to life or something."

  Leia winced. "Han, I wish you
wouldn't say things like that." She slipped the datapad into her cloak pocket. "I wish you wouldn't even think them."

  She grabbed Sligh's pack and dragged it over.

  Sligh was instantly at her side. "You'd steal my water?"

  "My water-I'm the one paying for it." Leia traded the straps with Han for his blaster. "You know what to do."

  "Yeah." He lifted the pack and, surprised by how heavy it was, braced himself to throw. "Be ready."

  "For what?" Sligh stepped toward the pack. "Wait!"

  Han hit the Squib on the backswing and sent him tumbling across the suite, then whipped the pack around and launched it through the door.

  Even one-handed, the officer was a good shot with a blaster rifle. No sooner had the black shape started flying toward him than he began to pour fire into it, melting the plastoid bottles and instantly superheating several dozen liters of water. Billowing vapor filled the corridor. Leia rushed past Han, pressing his blaster back

  his hand, dancing into the steam and raising her pistol toward officer's position. Han followed and saw a golden-brown blur launch itself from the opposite doorway, leaping toward a hazy white shape scrambling across the corridor, toward the control panel on the other side of the security door. "Hold on!"

  Han reached over Leia's shoulder, pushing her weapon arm down just as the brown blur flew past. A tremendous thunk sounded from the side of the corridor, followed by the clatter of plastoid armor sliding down the wall and the scrape of weapons being kicked away across the floor. Chewbacca roared in triumph, one hand holding what appeared to be the officer's head. Then he rowled in astonishment and fell backward, arms flying up to launch the head into Han's chest.

  Han caught the thing in both hands and heard a tinny voice coming from the helmet speaker. "Sir? Sir, are you there?"

  Leia filled the corridor with blasterfire again, and Han looked up to see a blurry black oval bouncing back and forth in the steam, growing rapidly smaller as the hazy white armor beneath it dodged down the corridor. Han dropped the helmet-the empty helmet- and added his own fire.

  The officer dived for cover and vanished from sight, apparently around the corner of an intersection. "Chewie, you okay?"

  Chewbacca growled and started to clamber up. A pair of indistinct red eyes appeared ahead, glowing through the dissipating steam from where the officer had escaped. Han locked gazes with the eyes and raised his blaster to fire, but Chewbacca rose and blocked his shot. By the time he could step around the Wookiee, the eyes were gone.

  "Did you see that?" Han asked. "Red eyes?"

  "Yes," Leia said. "The Empire using aliens? They must be get ting desperate."

  Or maybe just smart, Chewbacca suggested.

  C-3PO came out of Chewbacca's suite, Grees and Emala close behind him. They were not quite staggering under the weight of their packs, but both were hunched far forward.

  Han took one look and said, "You'll never keep up."

  "Is that your problem?" Grees demanded.

  "You'll be happy later that someone has water to sell," Emala added.

  Sligh clattered up, loaded down with blaster rifles and utility belts stripped off dead Imperials.

  Han shook his head and started down the corridor. "If they fall behind, Chewie, shoot 'em."

  Sligh stopped to retrieve the squad leader's rifle and utility belt, and the weapons left by the officer.

  Noisy as they were, the Squibs did keep up, and a minute later the group was sneaking out the side door of the Sidi Driss. Leia pointed toward the entrance of what had been a subterranean workshop when the Sidi Driss had still been a moisture farm.

  "That's the garage."

  "Doesn't look like they have anyone watching it yet." Han started across the dusty ground toward it. "If we hurry, we can be out of there-"

  "You must be sunsick!" Grees huffed up, both hands hanging onto his pack straps. "The Imperials see a landspeeder or swoop leaving this town, there'll be an assault shuttle on it faster than a farm boy on a womp rat."

  "You have a better idea?" Han asked.

  "That would be hard?" Grees twitched his snout and pointed out toward the watering corral on the perimeter of Sidi Driss land, where the humped silhouettes of several dozen dewbacks were

  arranging themselves into a caravan line. "The idea is to disappear into the landscape."

  Leia came to Han's side and took his hand. "Han?"

  "Yeah?"

  "That's a better idea."

  Chapter 15

  The Askajians had paid a fortune for the right to water at the Sidi Driss, and they would not be hurried, not by Grees's threats or Sligh's pleas or Emala's promises, not even by the prospect of a battle erupting in the midst of their caravan, and Leia thought that was probably a good thing. For now, the surviving squad and a half of Imperials was too busy searching hangars and disabling landspeeders to worry about plodding dewbacks, but that would certainly change should the caravan show any sign of haste. For now, it was better to allow every beast its fill at the watering basin, to give each Askajian driver all the time he-or she-needed to gulp down that last liter or two from the spigot.

  "P-P-Princess Leia!" C-3PO sputtered. He was strapped in a smuggler's sling beneath the dewback that would serve as Leia's mount, concealed from the side by low-hanging saddle blankets and lying far enough forward that his head dipped in the basin whenever the huge lizard lowered its scaly head to drink. "If this continues, my circuits will short!"

  "Even without power?" Leia asked. She was standing beside the dewback, holding its reins.

  "No, b-but corrosion is always-oh..."

  Leia waited until the dewback raised its head, then reached underneath its chest and flipped the primary circuit breaker on the back of C-3PO's neck. He emitted a wet pop and fell silent. As refugees from a desert world long under Imperial domination, the Askajians had been quick to strike a bargain with the Squibs to help the group track down the Jawa sandcrawler, which was now alarmingly overdue. But they had also made clear they would abide no disruptions to their business.

  Leia only wished the Squibs were as easy to silence as C-3PO. All three were hanging beneath the adjacent dewback, strapped in a smuggler's sling and hidden from view like C-3PO. Despite this, they were chattering incessantly to the caravan leader, a round mountain of an Askajian who stood on the opposite side of the basin directing the final watering.

  "... give you a better price for tomuon wool than any Jawa," Grees was saying. The Squibs had been trying to strike a bargain ever since they had discovered what the caravan was carrying. Tomuon wool was prized across the galaxy for its sheen and comfort, and when this tribe of Askajians had fled their home, they had possessed the foresight to resettle on a desert world where their stock could thrive. "And we'd never tell the Imperials where to find your village."

  "Neither would the Jawas," the leader, Borno, said. With his epidermal sacs gorged with water, Borno resembled an immensely corpulent human with a bluish pallor and heavy brow folds. "They don't know where it is. No one does. We like it that way."

  "Very wise," Sligh said. "We can see you're a shrewd being who appreciates the value of a credit-which we can get you. Imperial or New Republic."

  "We don't need credits." As Borno spoke, he was careful not to look toward the dewback. Even with only a dozen stormtroopers to search all of Anchorhead, there always seemed to be one set of electrobinoculars turned their way. "We need our vaporators. They're on the Jawa sandcrawler."

  "Our credits are better than Jawa vaporators," Emala said "With our credits, you can buy vaporators-vaporators that won't break down."

  "All vaporators break down," Borno said. "If you knew anything about vaporators, you'd know that."

  "You've never owned a Tusede Thirteen," Sligh said quickly. "Someone like you would really appreciate the quality. Self-cleaning condenser filters, redundant sensors, magno-shielded intake vents, everything a shrewd buyer like you would want."

  "That so?" Despite the query, Borno
looked unconvinced. "Then I guess there wouldn't be any need to find out why the Jawas are so late in their sandcrawler. That would be a real bonus." The Squibs fell abruptly silent. Valuable as tomuon wool was, it was worth only a fraction of what they stood to earn by recovering Killik Twilight.

  Finally, Sligh said, "You're too smart for us, Borno. We'd better stick to the plan."

  "As long as you can really locate the sandcrawler," Grees added. "If the Imperials find it first, you can forget about your vaporators."

  "Yes, so you have told me," Borno said. "Besides, we already have a Tusede Thirteen. Those extra features are just more things to go wrong."