Star Wars - Tales From The Mos Eisley Cantina

by Kevin J. Anderson

  qualifying phase of the test, you will be allowed to accompany the

  AT-AT in one of my'combat battalions. Good luck to you all, but

  take a good look around you-fewer than one person in ten will

  successfully complete this arduous training." He scanned the room

  as though he could look into each recruit's face. Davin sat rigid

  in his seat and tried to meet the holo's eye, but the image

  dissolved from view.

  A murmur ran through the ship. The recruits leaned over their

  seats and whispered excitedly to one another. The man next to

  Davin turned, his face flushed. "An AT-AT! Can you believe we've

  been picked for the chance to command one of them?"

  The image of the monstrous vehicle stepping across the rocky

  terrain still burned in Davin's mind. Through all of his training

  experiences, nothing had sparked the fire in him as had the sight

  of the AT-AT. It was almost as if his destiny had been unfolded

  right inside the sleek executive transport.

  "Yeah," whispered Davin, "and I'm going to make sure I'm not

  one of those nine recruits who washes out."

  The AT-AT control room seemed large to Davin Felth.

  Multicolored touch-sensitive controls covered the walls and

  ceiling; the rectangular viewport at the front of the control room

  was as tall as Davin. Two swivel chairs sat at the front of the

  viewport, allowing the pilot and copilot access to all the

  controls, yet giving them a spectacular view of below. They were a

  good five hundred meters above the ground in the AT-AT control

  "head," docked at the training base.

  Davin felt a shortness of breath, as if he had walked into some

  sacrosanct place; but it was more than that. He slowly stepped

  forward and ran a hand over the right-hand seat. He felt rich

  dewback leather - only the best for Colonel Veers's recruits!

  "Do you like it?"

  The voice startled Davin, and the past months of training made

  him cringe at the blast he knew was to come. "Yes, sir."

  The instructor joined Davin and spoke quietly, as if not to

  disturb Davin's sense of awe. "I don't think I'll ever get used to

  the feeling I get when I climb aboard." He glanced at Davin. "And

  that's one of the attributes we look for in our recruits, Davin

  Felth. If they do not respect the AT-AT, then they approach their

  assignment as just another duty. They might as well stay in their

  virtual reality chamber, playing like children. We only want the

  best to pilot the AT-AT, because when something goes wrong that

  you can't fix by VR, then it's the best who survive."

  He reached up and ran his fingers over an array of lights. A

  low sound thrummed through the floor as the instruments powered

  up. The instructor swung the chair around and flicked at the

  lights in front of him. "Do you want to take her out?"

  "Yes, sir!" said Davin. He eagerly climbed into the copilot's

  seat and waited for instructions. When none came, he remembered

  the lessons he had been taught in the VR simulator, and quickly

  helped the instructor with the checklist. Within minutes they were

  ready to ease the AT-AT out of the docking bay.

  Davin watched the screens inlaid above the viewport; he saw

  images broadcast from the docking area.of the AT-AT from all

  different angles. In the seat next to Davin, the instructor

  effortlessly ran through the sequence to back the AT-AT away from

  its berth. Although the AT-AT was completely controlled by

  artificial intelligence, Davin appreciated for the first time the

  enormity of the task of running a machine that held nearly as many

  moving parts as the human body. The human presence on board served

  as a foolproof backup.

  "Let's take her up into the hills," said the instructor. "I

  want to run through some target practice. I'll let Base know our

  call sign is Landkiller One."

  The view outside of the viewport raced across the molecular-

  thick window as the AT-AT lumbered away from the base. They

  quickly left behind the syngranite buildings and roads and turned

  into the rugged hillside.

  The ride was smooth. The AT-AT stepped across chasms so deep

  Davin couldn't see the bottom. They climbed the ridge and dropped

  down to the valley on the other side; boulders littered the

  hillside. They were in the middle of a barren wasteland. Sheer

  rock rose up on one side of them, and in the distance, Davin saw

  red and silver rock formations jutting into the air, looking like

  a forest of multicolored needles. Davin glanced at the clock-they

  had only left the base ten minutes before, but already they were

  out in the wilderness.

  Little by little the instructor allowed Davin to take over the

  AT-AT controls. Piloting the AT-AT was just like using the virtual

  reality simulator, but Davin knew that any misjudgment would be

  disastrous. Davin devoted his entire attention to monitoring the

  myriad instruments.

  "You're pretty good at this," said the instructor after a

  while. "Not many recruits are as comfortable as you."

  "Thanks," said Davin, not breaking his concentration.

  "Keep at this heading," said the instructor, pushing up from

  his seat. "I want to check the weapons cache. We're coming upon

  the target range and the terrain doesn't change any from here."

  "Yes, sir."

  "Just call out if anything goes wrong; I'll be right back. But

  don't leave the controls-no matter what happens."

  "Yes, sir." Davin tried to keep his excitement in check. The AT-

  AT almost functioned on its own, but Davin still felt heady being

  in command, alone in the command center. Step by monstrous step,

  the AT-AT lumbered across the barren terrain. Looking out over the

  rugged land, Davin could imagine himself commanding a fleet of AT-

  AT's, massing against the Rebels-

  Davin caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye. A

  dark speck, then suddenly three more, swooped down out of the sky.

  They headed straight for the AT-AT.

  Davin glanced at his radar screen-nothing showed up. He punched

  up his scanning instruments and got the same response nothing at

  all in the EM, gravitational, and neutrino spectrums.

  Davin frowned and called out to his instructor, "I've got a

  visual on some fighter craft heading this way, but they don't show

  up on scanners. They're closing fast."

  Davin didn't get an answer from his instructor, still back in

  the weapons cache. The only sound Davin heard was the muted

  rumbling of the AT-AT's power system, and die slight jarring that

  came over the electronically cushioned ride.

  Davin turned in his seat. "Sir? Are you there?" The door to the

  weapons cache was sealed; Davin turned back to the front. The four

  fighter craft grew closer. He slapped at the intercom and

  broadcasted throughout the AT-AT. "Sergeant!" Still no answer.

  The four ships split off in two pairs, each vessel turning

  sideways as they came directly for the AT-AT control chamber.

  Bright pops of blaster cannon erupted from the fighters as they

  fired
upon Davin's AT-AT.

  "Hey!" Davin felt anger and fear surge through him. "Sergeant,

  we're being attacked!" The vessels thundered past the AT-AT,

  causing the giant war machine to sway slightly in the fighter's

  turbulence. "What's going on? Are we in the target area or some

  thing?"

  Still not getting a reply, Davin nearly unbuckled to go look

  for the AT-AT instructor. What if something had happened to the

  man? The instructor would know what to do. This was crazy!

  But when Davin saw the fighter craft swoop up again in front of

  him, he sat frozen in his seat. The four fighters were coming in

  for another strafing run. Davin forced himself to grab at the

  communicator. He flicked to the AT-AT Base frequency. "Distress,

  Distress -this is Landkiller One! Attention, Base, we're under

  attack. There must be some kind of mistake. I say again,

  Distress!"

  Only the sound of white noise came over the speaker; even the

  emergency holo did not function.

  Bright pinpoints of light once again erupted from the head of

  the attacking fighter craft. Davin tensed himself as the AT-AT was

  rocked with the impact of a blaster cannon. A shrill alarm blasted

  above his head as the acrid smell of oily smoke rolled throughout

  the control room. "Sergeant-help me!" The warbling sound of

  another alarm pierced the air; synthetic voices announcing damage-

  control procedures came from the rear of the control room. Twenty

  diings seemed to happen at once.

  Throughout all the confusion, Davin spotted the four fighter

  craft rolling up from upon high and diving down to make another .

  . . and perhaps their last . . . strafing run.

  Davin grew suddenly angry at all that had gone wrong.

  Throughout his short career as an Imperial military man, he had

  been drilled that the only way to survive was to follow

  procedures. But here was a situation that had not been covered in

  any textbook or testing sequence! He was out on his own, and as

  crazy as it seemed, someho w the Rebels must have found their way

  to the Imperial military training planet. How else could he

  explain the fighter vessels not showing up on radar?

  Davin pushed all concern aside and armed the AT-AT fire

  controls. If he was going to be shot at, he wasn't going to go

  down without a fight. The automated fire-control system was of no

  use since the enemy craft did not show up on any of his scanning

  instruments.

  Slaving the blaster cannon controls to follow his line of

  sight, he let loose a salvo of high-energy laser blasts. The

  bundles of energy shot past the attacking ships. Although his

  shots missed the fighter craft, the attacking ships split up. Had

  they not expected him to fight back?

  The fighters flew past him, again coming so close that the AT-

  AT shuddered because of the passing crafts' shock Wave. Davin

  slapped at the emergency beacon, sending out a continuous squawk

  over the airwaves. At the same time, he halted the AT-AT's forward

  motion, slaving the AT-AT's entire computer resources to fight the

  incoming attackers.

  Since he had to rely on his eyesight and none of the

  instruments during die battle, Davin decided to put himself at the

  greatest advantage. He ordered the AT-AT to kneel, dropping as low

  to the ground as possible. Slowly, with jerky motions, the huge

  behemoth staggered to the ground.

  Davin brought the war machine's head down flat with the body

  until there remained no part of the AT-AT that the fighters could

  fly under. By the time the four fighter craft came back around for

  another attack, Davin's AT-AT lay hunkered on the ground.

  The fighters grouped together for a high-angle dive-bombing

  run. As they approached, Davin knew they could not fly under the

  AT-AT.

  Davin forced them to make a suicide attempt on the control

  chamber.

  Davin jammed his finger down on the firing control. The AT-AT

  rocked with the recoil from the laser cannon. An explosion burst

  across the screen as he hit two of the fighters; a third fighter

  tried to steer away from the flying debris, but his wing clipped

  the ground and cartwheeled into a rocky cliff.

  The remaining fighter bore down on him. He flew in low,

  wobbling in the hot layer of turbulent desert air. Davin waited

  until the fighter was nearly upon him before firing. The craft

  kept close to the ground, as if expecting Davin's AT-AT to rise

  and start shooting.

  Seconds later, the last fighter plowed into a rock formation,

  erupting with a violent burst. Red-orange flames shot out, then

  quickly disappeared from view.

  Davin sat in the sudden quiet. Moments ago the control room had

  been filled with a cacophony of alarms and the sight of four

  fighter craft attacking the AT-AT. But now, there was only the

  distant throb of the onboard power plant.

  Davin felt drained, too tired even to call Base and report what

  had happened. But he knew that he must, for if these four Rebel

  craft had somehow managed to evade the Imperial defenses, then no

  telling how many of the dangerous vessels would be lurking in

  orbit.

  He picked up the communicator when he heard a sound behind him.

  Davin turned. "Sergeant?" In the shock of battle, he had

  completely forgotten about his instructor being lost in the sealed

  weapons cache.

  His instructor stood with his hands on his hips, grinning

  wolfishly. "Good job, Recruit Felth. You've got a command party

  landing on the AT-AT command module, so open up the top hatch."

  "Yes, sir." Dazed and confused, Davin did as instructed. Once

  outside, he searched for the wreckage of the fighters that should

  have covered the landscape . . . but he was stunned to see

  nothing.

  "You're the first recruit to bring down all four fighters,

  Davin Felth. This AT-AT was specially designed to simulate that

  battle-it was all projected via virtual reality into the control

  head." It was almost too much for Davin to comprehend.

  Recovering from the fact that he had not been in an actual

  battle, Davin stood with his instructor on top of the AT-AT's

  sprawling metallic head. Davin squinted in the sunlight; the dry

  desert air smelled enthralling to him after the stuffiness of the

  damaged control room. A dot appeared above them, dilating in size

  until Davin could make out the bottom of an Imperial command

  scout. Davin and his instructor stepped back. After the command

  scout landed, a door hissed open and a ramp extended to the

  surface.

  Two white-armored Imperial stormtroopers marched out and stood

  at rigid attention on either side of the opening. Davin gasped as

  he recognized the man emerging from the ship. "Colonel Veers!"

  Davin snapped to attention and saluted.

  Veers strode up and returned the salute. He looked Davin up and

  down. "Recruit Felth, is it?" "Yes, sir," stammered Davin.

  "This kneeling maneuver with the AT-AT - how did you come up

  with that idea, recruit?
"

  Davin opened his mouth but he was at a loss for words.

  "Well," growled Veers. "Out with it, recruit!"

  "I - I don't know, sir. It just seemed the logical thing to do.

  It was the only way to keep the fighters from finishing us off, by

  not allowing them underneath the AT-AT."

  Veers sounded strangely cold. "And what would that do,

  recruit?"

  Davin shrugged, thrown by Veers's line of questioning. Why, he

  had fought off the fighters, hadn't he? And won! "Well-"

  "Address the colonel as sir!" corrected his instructor,

  embarrassed to be speaking in front of Veers.

  "Thank you, Sergeant," said Veers. The colonel drew close to

  Davin and steered him away from the others. When they were some

  distance from the instructor and Imperial stormtroopers, the

  colonel spoke softly. "Now continue, recruit. What is so special

  about not allowing the fighters access to the AT-AT underbelly?"

  Davin stiffened. "I lost track of them when they flew

  underneath. Once the fighters were under the AT-AT, they could

  have done just about anything they wanted."

  Veers seemed about to lose his patience. "Such as-?"

  Davin felt his face grow warm as he scrambled to think of

  something, anything to appease the colonel. "Such as ... tying up

  the AT-AT legs, sir," Davin blurted out. "All they needed was

  some cable and they could have easily tripped the AT-AT."

  A strange look came over Colonel Veers. The thin man smiled

  tightly and looked Davin over. "Very well. Thank you, recruit.

  That's very enlightening." He raised a finger to his lips. "Keep

  this classified until my battle staff can analyze the

  implications, understand?"

  "Yes, sir!"

  Veers turned to go. Raising his voice, he nodded at Davin's

  instructor as he spoke. "Have Recruit Felth report to Assignments

  when he returns. A man of his caliber deserves immediate

  recognition. My staff will have an assignment worthy of his

  talents ready when he returns."

  "Yes, sir," said the instructor.

  As an afterthought, Veers raised a finger. "And impound all the

  datacubes on this simulation. Have them sent to my command

  headquarters. Understood?"

  "Yes, Colonel."

  "And quickly. I have been dispatched for temporary duty as an

  advisor to the Emperor's new Death Star. I want this accomplished

  before I leave."

  When the scout ship disappeared from view, Davin's instructor