by Timothy Zahn
It was a droideka. But unlike the one they’d so recently faced in Jerf Huxley’s cantina, this one appeared to be fully functional.
And it was hunting them.
CHAPTER 25
Mara still had her lightsaber in her left hand as the droideka opened fire. She swung it around, trying to get it to guard position—
Just as the green blade of Luke’s lightsaber cut in front of her, deflecting the shots that had been aimed at her torso. “Come on!” he shouted.
She didn’t need to be told twice. Moving as quickly as they could while still defending against the sudden hail of fire, they ducked back into the portside corridor they’d just left. “Well, that’s just—”
“Later,” Luke snapped. “I hear it folding up again.”
Mara swore under her breath, jamming her sleeve blaster back into its holster as she took off down the corridor. “Wait a second,” she said as a thought suddenly occurred to her. “Keep going,” she added, ducking into an open doorway to her right.
Luke broke stride. “What—?”
“I’m playing a hunch,” she hissed back. “Get going before it sees you talking to an empty room.”
She could tell he didn’t understand and that he furthermore wasn’t at all happy about leaving her alone like this. But as she could sense his doubts, he could also sense her confidence that it was a gamble worth taking. Giving her a quick nod, he resumed his sprint away from the command deck. Listening closely, Mara heard the droideka’s rumbling change pitch as it made a tight turn around the corner and rolled into the corridor behind her husband. The pitch changed again as it spotted Luke in the distance and headed in pursuit. Taking a couple of steps backward into the room, hopefully putting herself out of range of the droideka’s sensors, Mara pulled out her blaster again and leveled it at the doorway. She could very literally have only one shot. . .
Abruptly, a blur of shiny metal flashed into view. Letting the Force guide her hand, she fired.
The droideka was gone again almost before it registered in her vision, and from the direction it had disappeared came an abrupt cacophony of metal on metal as it scrabbled to a sudden halt to deal with this unexpected menace on its flank. Mara jumped to her feet and charged for the doorway, hoping she might get in a follow-up shot before it could recover its balance.
But the machine was too fast. By the time she emerged into the corridor, it had already started to wheel around toward her. Aiming for the sensor cluster in its head, she fired.
Too late. The droideka again got its shield up in time, ricocheting the shot away. It finished its unrolling and rose again, weapons tracking toward her. Mara dropped her blaster, igniting her lightsaber and bringing it back up in front of her. The droideka’s blasters lifted slightly—
And suddenly the machine staggered as something big and dark came flying down the corridor and slammed into its shield from behind, sending its first volley into the deck. Mara backed away down the corridor, blocking the droideka’s shots as it waddled awkwardly after her. A moment later, she’d made it back to the cross-corridor outside the command deck. A second object slammed into the droideka, and she took advantage of the distraction to dodge to her left and run full-speed toward the starboard corridor. Hoping fervently that the droideka didn’t have a friend waiting in ambush, she rounded the corner.
No one was waiting, droideka or Vagaari. She’d made it two cross-corridors back when Luke stepped out in front of her, palm upraised. “It’s all right,” he said. “It’s not following.”
“You’d better be right,” she said, breathing hard as she slowed to a halt. “Thanks for the assist. What were you throwing at it, anyway?”
“Whatever odds and ends were handy,” he told her, glancing around and pointing her to a nearby electronics repair room. “The first one was a power converter, I think, and the second was a two-meter piece of structural bracing girder that had been broken off and was lying around.”
“Neither of which is exactly a lightweight,” Mara pointed out grimly as they stepped inside the room. “If hitting it that hard didn’t do anything but spoil its aim for a couple of shots, we can forget about that as a way to take it down.”
“I think you’re right,” Luke agreed. “What about you? Any luck with that sucker shot?”
Mara shrugged. “I’m pretty sure I hit the sensor head, but I don’t know what kind of damage I did. Probably not very much—it sure didn’t have any trouble lining up its blasters on me afterward.”
“So they can’t keep their shields up while they’re rolling?”
“Right,” Mara said. “About all they can do with their shields up is that little waddle thing. Problem is, in wheel form they’re just too fast for a good killing shot.”
“Certainly not from a blaster that small,” Luke said. “Maybe we should see if we can find something with a little more power and try it again.”
“Maybe,” Mara said doubtfully. “But then you’re going to run into a different limitation. With blasters, the more power it’s got, the bigger and heavier it is. Even with the Force I had enough trouble hitting it with my sleeve gun. It would be that much harder to move even a carbine fast enough to keep up with a droideka’s speed and maneuverability.”
“How about if it wasn’t moving?” Luke asked. “Could that same carbine punch through the shield?”
Mara shook her head. “I’ve never seen the specs, but from what I’ve heard it sounds like it would take something a lot bigger than that to do the trick.”
“So we’re back to hitting it when it’s on the move,” Luke concluded. “Maybe you should have tried that ambush trick with your lightsaber instead of your blaster.”
“Wouldn’t have worked,” Mara said. “I would have had to stand right at the doorway to reach it, and it would have picked me up long before it got within range.”
“How about now that its sensors are damaged?”
“I’d hate to try it,” Mara said hesitantly. “There are several different types of sensors grouped there—composite radiation, vibration, and I think one or two more. It can aim and fire using any combination of them.”
“Terrific,” Luke said, starting to sound a little frustrated. “We can’t use blasters, and we can’t use lightsabers. So how did the Jedi of that era deal with them?”
Mara felt her lips tighten. “Mostly, they ran away,” she said. “I can’t remember a single story of a Jedi taking out a shielded one on his own.”
Luke seemed taken aback. “Oh.”
“Oh, indeed.” Mara leaned her head back out of the room to peer down the corridor. “You did say it had stopped, right?”
Luke nodded. “I heard it unroll. From the direction of the sound, I’d guess it’s sitting midway between the two command deck doors.”
“Like a big metal vornskr on guard duty.”
“Exactly,” Luke said, starting to sound back on track again. “At least now we know what else Outbound Flight’s organizers packed aboard. Where in the worlds did they get a droideka, anyway? I thought only the Trade Federation had them back then.”
“They did, but you forget that the Trade Federation had been allegedly rehabilitated after the Naboo incident,” Mara pointed out. “They were all sweetness and light—well, they were all grudging cooperation, anyway—until the Separatists dropped the hammer at Geonosis and the Clone Wars began. Someone probably persuaded them to donate a few to Outbound Flight with an eye toward sentry use on any new colonies they might set up.” She gestured. “Fortunately, it looks like the Vagaari only have one of them working.”
“One is plenty for me,” Luke assured her dryly. “I’m surprised they got even that far.”
“I’m not,” Mara said sourly. “Or at least, I shouldn’t have been. The more I think about it, the more I think droid technology was what Estosh came here looking for in the first place.”
“What makes you say that?” Luke asked, frowning.
“It was right after that first cleaner droid
appeared on D-Four and you slipped away to scout out our path,” Mara said, feeling yet another twinge of professional embarrassment. Like the fake Geroon refugee ship, this was something she should have instantly caught on to. “We got to talking about droids in general, and one of the Vagaari asked specifically about droidekas. There’s no place he could have picked up that term except from Fel’s operational manual.”
“Okay,” Luke said slowly. “But we already know they’re the ones who stole it.”
“Right,” Mara said. “But there were four densely packed data cards in that set. What are the odds they would have stumbled across a list of droid designations unless they were specifically looking for them?”
“Even less than the odds they’d find the maintenance and activation procedures,” Luke said, nodding. “So this whole fuss is over nothing but a few droids?”
“They’re only a few droids to us because we’re so used to having them around,” Mara pointed out. “Remember what Fel said about the Chiss not having droid technology? If the Chiss don’t, probably no one else out here does, either. If the Vagaari can learn how to build and field a droid army, they’re going to have a huge advantage, especially among the less developed cultures who seem to be their preferred prey.”
“I guess you’re right,” Luke said. “So the original plan was probably to kill everyone aboard the Chaf Envoy, spread out through Outbound Flight to collect all the droids they could find, then sneak back through the Redoubt before we were gone long enough to have raised any alarms.”
“That’s my guess,” Mara said. “It was just pure luck they got a working Dreadnaught as a bonus.”
Luke grimaced. “Some bonus. The chief Vagaari’s going to be really pleased to have this show up on his doorstep.”
“Not if we can help it,” Mara declared. “Come on, you’re the Jedi Master. Think of something.”
“Maybe we don’t actually have to destroy it,” Luke said. “All we really want to do is to get onto the command deck and take control of the ship.”
“And, what, we just persuade the droideka to turn its head for a minute?”
Luke smiled tightly. “As a matter of fact,” he said, “I think we can do exactly that.”
* * *
Carefully, Luke eased his way to the end of the starboard corridor. Directly in front of him was the archway and access door into the command deck, while somewhere out of sight to his left the droideka was standing guard.
He stretched out his mind to Mara, sensed that she was in mirror-image position thirty meters away in the portside corridor. The droideka was now directly between them. . . and the way its arms were hinged, it could only fire in one direction at a time. Bracing himself, he ignited his lightsaber and stepped out into the cross-corridor.
The droideka was, as he’d surmised earlier, standing with its back to the command deck wall midway between the two access doors. Its shield popped on as its sensors detected Luke’s movement, its guns swiveling as it tracked toward him. “Yes, it’s me,” Luke called, lifting his lightsaber to guard position as he took another two steps toward the machine. “Come on; have at it.”
The droideka obliged with a burst of blasterfire. Luke’s lightsaber flashed back and forth, deflecting the shots as he slowly reversed direction back the way he’d come. He made it back to the corner and ducked back to safety. Closing down his lightsaber, he turned aft and started running down the corridor, listening between the thudding of his footsteps for the sounds of the droideka giving chase.
The sounds didn’t come. Frowning, he slowed to a halt, listening more closely. Still no pursuit. Reversing direction again, he returned to the corner and eased an eye around it.
The droideka’s response was another round of blasterfire that gouged a fresh set of pits in the metal walls. But in that single brief glimpse Luke had seen that the droideka hadn’t budged from the spot where he’d left it.
Retreating a few paces down the corridor, he pulled out his comlink and thumbed it on. “Mara?”
“It doesn’t seem to want to come out and play, does it?” her voice answered.
“No, it’s apparently happy right where it is,” Luke said. “You want to give it a try?”
“Not worth the effort,” Mara said. “It’s already seen that there are two of us, and it’s smart enough not to get suckered into chasing one of us when the other one’s unaccounted for. I was afraid we were going to run into that problem.”
“It was still worth a try,” Luke said. “On to Plan Two, I guess. You ready?”
“Ready,” she answered. “Watch yourself.”
“Right.” Luke shut off the comlink and returned it to his belt. Stepping back to the corner, he lifted his lightsaber, braced himself—
And spun 180 degrees around a fraction of a second before the burst of blasterfire erupted toward him from far down the corridor. Another Vagaari hit squad had launched its assault, apparently hoping to sneak up on him while he was concentrating on the droideka.
Like the previous attacks, this one was over quickly. Luke could sense the pain that indicated one of the deflected bolts had returned to its source, then sensed the distance change as the aliens retreated, dragging their wounded comrade with them.
He took a deep breath. With the combat tunnel vision fading, he could sense Mara’s sudden anxiety. He sent her a quick mental assurance, plus a wordless warning to watch her own back. Stepping to the corner again, lightsaber held ready, he charged suddenly toward the archway in front of him.
The droideka must have expected a repeat of Luke’s earlier, more cautious appearance. Its first spatter of fire passed harmlessly behind him as he sprinted across the cross-corridor and skidded to a halt in front of the anteroom door. The droideka’s second volley found the range, and Luke set his teeth firmly together as he swung his lightsaber across the multiple shots coming at him. He didn’t dare split away enough of his attention to look behind his attacker; but if Mara was on schedule, she was even now moving stealthily from her corridor to the portside anteroom door. . .
Abruptly, the fire coming at Luke broke off as the droideka pivoted around. Luke had just enough time to see Mara in the distance, stabbing her lightsaber into the edge of the blast door, as the droideka opened fire.
He felt his breath catch in his throat. But Mara had been expecting that move, and had her lightsaber back up in time to defend herself.
And now, with the droideka’s attack pointed in the other direction, it was Luke’s turn. Lifting his lightsaber to point horizontally, keeping a wary eye on the droideka, he jabbed the blade into the blast door beside him.
Again, the droideka reacted, swiveling back around toward him. Luke brought his lightsaber up, dropping into combat focus again as the quadruple blasters began laying down their withering rain of fire. Behind the droideka, he knew, Mara would have returned to her own assault on the command deck. If the droideka continued to play this game, eventually both of them would make it through.
The droideka had apparently figured that out, too. Firing one last volley at Luke, it dropped its shield, folded back into wheel shape, and charged down the cross-corridor toward Mara. Luke set off in pursuit—
And barely got his lightsaber back up in time as the droideka’s blasters fired a twin burst at him.
He managed to block the shots, his stride faltering with the sheer unexpectedness of it. He hadn’t realized it was possible for droidekas to shoot while in wheel shape. The machine fired a rolling burst at Mara, then another at Luke as the positioning of its blasters came back to the right spot in its rotation. It fired another shot at Mara—
Luke inhaled sharply, breaking into an all-out run as the droideka’s strategy suddenly became clear. It was going to roll right up to Mara, moving so close that even Jedi reflexes wouldn’t be fast enough to handle the shots. Run, he thought desperately toward her. Get away. Now.
Mara didn’t move. She’d figured out the droideka’s plan, too, he could sense; but instead of try
ing to get away, she was waiting for it, lightsaber ready, preparing to meet the destroyer head-on. Luke breathed a curse that was half anger and half fear and leaned into his sprint, driving himself desperately toward his wife. The droideka was nearly on her now—
Then, even as it fired one final time from the wheel position and screeched to a halt a bare two meters away, Mara finally moved. She leapt forward and to the side, moving out of its line of rolling fire and lunging toward it with her lightsaber.
Once again, the droideka’s mechanical reflexes were too fast. It had its shield up even before it finished unrolling, bouncing her lightsaber blade uselessly off the hazy surface. The droideka continued uncurling, its blasters swinging up and out into full maneuverability again as Mara tried to bring her lightsaber up in time. The blasters spat fire—
And with a final desperate lunge, Luke hurled his lightsaber forward directly in front of the blasters, blocking the shots. “Come on!” he shouted.
Mara needed no encouragement. She jumped past the droideka, plucking Luke’s lightsaber out of midair as she passed it, and hit the deck running. Luke braked to a halt, snatching back his weapon from her as she shot past him. A second later, they were sprinting together toward the safety of the starboard corridor.
Only it might not be as safe as Luke had expected. Behind them, he could hear the sounds as the droideka once again folded up and set itself in motion. Now that it had both of them in sight, it had apparently decided to go on the offensive.
They reached the starboard corridor and ducked around the corner. “It’s following us,” Mara panted.
“I know,” Luke panted back. “Keep going. We may have to try that lightsaber ambush after all.”
