Biggs maneuvered his skyhopper so he was flying parallel with Luke, so close that Luke could clearly see Biggs’s mustached face. As they circled over the mouth of the canyon, several more skyhoppers came into view. Luke instantly recognized the vehicles piloted by Windy Starkiller, Tosche Station’s Fixer, and also Deak, another kid from Anchorhead.
One skyhopper was notably absent. Luke’s friend Tank had recently left Tatooine to attend the Imperial Military Academy of Carida. Luke didn’t know all the details, but he’d heard that Tank had failed to get into the Naval Academy on Prefsbelt IV, so it seemed doubtful that he’d wind up piloting starships for the Empire. This had surprised Luke, because he thought Tank was a pretty good pilot, at least in a skyhopper.
As Fixer’s T- 16 swept past him, Luke noticed that his airfoils had been freshly trimmed. As if that’ll make any difference, Luke thought.
Ever since Biggs had set the speed record for Beggar’s Canyon and simultaneously become the first pilot to successfully fly a skyhopper through the open hole at the top of the rock formation known as the Stone Needle, Fixer had become obsessed with modifying his own T-16 to beat Biggs’s time. Luke wondered whether Fixer had been spending more hours working on his T-16 than refurbishing parts for a certain Treadwell droid.
Because the farewell party was for Biggs, the other pilots insisted that he choose their course. Biggs picked one of the more treacherous stretches, a twisting route through a ravine that terminated at a high wall, which loomed over the area’s largest womp rat burrow. Luke knew that the course would test almost any pilot’s nerve, but he wasn’t surprised that none of the others backed out immediately. No one wanted to be called a coward.
The starting signal was given. All the skyhoppers power-dived into the yawning canyon mouth.
Through his triangular windshield, Luke saw his T-16’s shadow ripple over the canyon’s rocky floor as he hurtled forward. Biggs’s magenta T-16 was ahead of him. He increased speed as he dropped altitude, zooming so low that he could no longer see the shadow that traveled beneath him, then blasted past Biggs to grab the lead.
As the skyhoppers whipped around the first turn, Luke accidentally swung wide, leaving an opening for Biggs, who accelerated ahead of him. A warning light flashed beside a sensor scope on Luke’s control console indicating that his starboard airfoil was less than a meter from the canyon wall. Luke laughed as he swerved away from the wall and went after Biggs.
A wide boulder lay across the canyon floor. Biggs brought his T-16 up fast to avoid a collision, but as he ascended over the boulder, Luke accelerated again, sheering through the gap between the top of the boulder and the bottom of his friend’s skyhopper. Luke let out a loud whoop as he reclaimed the lead.
There came another sharp turn, and then the distance between the walls narrowed before the next twist. Luke glanced at his scopes to see whether Biggs was gaining him, and found that three skyhoppers had already pulled up and out of the race by ascending vertically from the canyon. Less than one kilometer of snaking turns later, he was still ahead of Biggs, and the last of the other pilots had pulled out.
The distance between the walls opened slightly. Biggs said, “Gangway, hotshot, I’m making my move!” He sped past Luke and swung in front of him.
“Just like I figured, Biggs, ol’ buddy. . . just a hair too early!” Luke chuckled. “There’s still time for me to jump you before the last turn, and no room for you to overtake me after that!”
But as they approached the last turn, Biggs suddenly braked with his retros, leaving Luke with no choice but to pull up or collide. As Luke sent his T-16 straight up and out of the canyon, he shouted, “Biggs, you tricky son of a gun!”
Luke swung back at an angle so he could look down and see Biggs make the final turn. Biggs’s T-16’s cannons fired, launching ground-charge missiles at the womp rat burrows, and then he elevated rapidly to escape the ravine’s dead-end wall.
“Way to go, Biggs!” Luke said into his comm as his friend rocketed out of the canyon. “I wouldn’t have dared to try what you did! Guess that’s why you’re headed for the Academy, and I’ll probably stay on the moisture farm.”
“Don’t kid yourself,” Biggs laughed. “You’ll be at the Academy soon enough.”
The other pilots had landed their skyhoppers on a plateau along the canyon’s upper rim. Luke and Biggs parked beside them, and Luke was still congratulating Biggs on his finish as they walked over to Fixer, Windy, and Deak, who were gathered beside Fixer’s skyhopper.
Luke noticed they were with Camie, a pretty girl with dark hair, who had been hanging out at Tosche Station more and more lately. Camie was standing near Deak, her hand on his back. Luke had been nursing crush on Camie for some time. Seeing her beside Deak, Luke couldn’t help feeling jealous.
“Look sharp, Camie,” Deak said as Luke and Biggs approached. “Here they come. ‘Two Shooting Stars that can’t be stopped.” He said this in a whiny voice, making fun of the pair.
“That’s what we always say, Deak,” Biggs said affably. “And I didn’t see anyone else proving us wrong today”
“Now that you mention it, Biggs,” Luke said, “I don’t recall seeing Deak anywhere near the finish.”
Fixer said, “That’s because Deak was the first one to leave the race.”
Camie looked at Deak and said, “Is that true?”
Deak said, “Well, I, uh, wanted to come back and see you, doll.”
“Oh, yeah?” Camie said. She stepped away from Deak. She didn’t even glance at Luke as she breezed past him and sidled up to Fixer. Looking back at Deak, Camie said, “From now on, doll, you can see me from a distance.”
Fixer grinned.
Luke thought, Does Camie like Fixer?
Windy said, “So, Biggs, after you graduate from the Academy, are you gonna go straight into the Imperial Navy?”
Biggs shrugged. “I’m not crazy about taking orders from anyone, but if joining the Navy is the surest way to become a licensed starpilot, then I’ll just suffer through it.”
Fixer said, “There might be another option, Biggs. From what I’ve heard, you don’t need a license to join the Rebellion. They’ll take anyone. Ha!”
Deak, Windy, and Camie laughed at this too. Luke just smiled sheepishly. In recent months, he had heard various rumors about the fledgling Rebel Alliance, which reportedly opposed the Galactic Empire and accused the Emperor of numerous atrocities. He looked at Biggs, wondering how his friend would respond to Fixer’s remark.
“Can’t say I know much about the Rebellion,” Biggs said, “but I think anyone who challenges the Empire is either very brave or very stupid.”
“Oh, definitely very stupid,” Windy said. “Anyone who takes a potshot at the Emperor is just looking to die.”
“Could be,” Biggs said. “Anyway, it’s not like anyone on Tatooine has reason to worry. The Empire’s a long, long way from here, and so is any rebellion against it. But why are we talking about this? Is this a farewell celebration, or is this a —“
Before Biggs could finish, the group heard the roar of a repulsorlift engine. They all turned fast to see a landspeeder approaching over the plateau. Spewing smoke and flames, the speeder careened toward the landed skyhoppers, then swerved and smashed into a outcropping of gray rock.
With several other youths at their heels, Luke and Biggs ran to the crashed speeder. Luke was first to arrive at the side of the speeder’s driver, who’d been thrown from the vehicle and lay sprawled on the hard ground. Noticing the driver’s uniform, Luke said, “Biggs, he’s a Militia Scout!”
Although Tatooine was a largely lawless world, regional militia units patrolled the outskirts of the more civilized areas to watch for Tusken Raiders and other threats. Biggs knelt beside the man and said, “Easy, mister. You’re okay now.”
“No!” the man said. “Got to warn everyone. . . big trouble!”
The man’s eyelids fluttered, and then his hand lashed out to grip Biggs’s arm. Luke could te
ll that the man was in shock and trying not to pass out.
“Tusken Raiders on the rampage!” the wounded man continued. “Lot of ‘em. . . mad as rock hornets! A supply caravan accidentally polluted one of their sacred wells!”
Biggs grimaced. “What kind of fools would do that?”
“Fools smuggling blasters . . .“ the man continued. “Sand People got the smugglers and the guns! They’re well-armed and angry enough to hit Anchorhead and any farms in between! They weren’t far behind me, so —“
The man was interrupted by the sound of long-range blasterfire. A millisecond later, one of the landed skyhoppers erupted into a fireball. Luke was stunned as he looked at the burning skyhopper. He was relieved that the skyhopper had been empty, and also that it wasn’t his.
“Everyone to cover!” Biggs shouted as more shots were fired. “They’re here!”
As one group of youths dragged the wounded man beside the outcropping, another ran to their vehicles to grab their own blaster rifles. Fixer tossed rifles to Luke and Biggs, who threw themselves down behind some rocks to return fire, sending energized bolts back across the desert. Luke couldn’t see the enemy, but as more blasterfire hammered against the rocks that protected him and his friends, he had no doubt that they were up against at least a dozen Sand People.
Luke glanced to his right and saw Windy hunkered over a portable comm unit that he’d hauled to the rocks. Luke said, “Windy, any luck with the communicator?”
“Too much atmospheric interference,” Windy said. “Gotta wait till the suns are lower.”
Hearing this, Biggs faced Luke and said, “By that time, the main party could be in Anchorhead! The gang’s handling this fine, Luke. You game to try for one of the hoppers?”
“When my uncle’s place is one of those in danger?” Luke said. “Try an’ stop me!”
Taking the rifles with them, Luke and Biggs ran as fast as they could for Luke’s skyhopper. As they ran, blaster shots slammed into the ground near their feet. They were more than halfway to the skyhopper, moving past another rocky outcropping, when Luke saw masked humanoid form rise suddenly away from the rocks.
“Biggs!” Luke shouted.
And then Biggs saw it too. A Tusken Raider, standing on the rocks less than three meters away from them, close enough that they could smell his filthy robes. He was clutching a gaderffi, a long metal weapon with a sharp-tipped spear on one end and a blunt club on the other. He was poised to attack.
Although Luke and Biggs were carrying rifles, they both knew that Tuskens were notoriously fast. There was a definite possibility that the Tusken might deal a deadly blow with his gaderffi before either of them could fire a shot.
Biggs muttered, “Blast them and their ability to pop up out of nowhere.” He placed one foot forward, bracing himself to jump back, as he said, “Move away from me, Luke, so instead of swinging that gaderffi, he’ll be forced to throw —“
Biggs was still talking as the Tusken flung the gaderffi. Biggs tried to dodge it. He failed.
“No!” Luke shouted as the gaderffi struck Biggs. Biggs stumbled back, and the heavy spear fell away from his body.
Luke’s reflexes took over, bringing his rifle up fast at the same time that the Tusken lunged at him. Luke squeezed the trigger. The blast caught the Tusken in the chest, and the masked figure collapsed in a heap against the rocks.
“Good shootin’, hotshot,” Biggs said as Luke helped him to his feet. “He only got my shoulder.” Suddenly, Biggs trembled. “But from the way I f-feel, that point may have been dipped in sand bat venom.”
“Hang on, Biggs,” Luke said, helping him walk to the skyhopper.
As Luke eased Biggs into the cockpit and squeezed onto the seat beside him, he looked at the wound on his friend’s shoulder. “I’ll have you to a medi-droid before that stuff can do any damage,” he said. He fired the T-16’s engine. “I’m boosting us straight up and out of here!”
“No, Luke,” Biggs said through clenched teeth as the T-16 lifted off. “Stay low. They’re better armed than usual, remember? Try for altitude and we’re a sitting duck for their long-range blasters!”
Just then a blaster bolt tore through the air in front the of the T-16. Luke realized that Biggs was right. He pushed at the controls, doing his best to take evasive action.
Biggs said, “You’re going to have to stay down. . . go through the mountains. .. ‘stead’a over them.”
“Through?” Luke said. “Biggs, there’s no way except. . .”
“Yeah,” Biggs said. “Diablo Cut! No one’s ever done it before. Probably for the good reason that it’s impossible! But if we take time to go the long way round, some farms and part of Anchorhead may not be waiting!”
Although Biggs hadn’t mentioned it, Luke could think of another reason to avoid a longer route. The way Biggs was sweating, Luke had no doubt that the gaderffi’s tip had indeed been poisoned, and that the poison was already working through Biggs’s system. Unless they took a shortcut, Biggs might not survive.
Luke sent the T-16 into a steep plunge, into a narrow ravine. “Okay, Mr. Darklighter,” Luke said. “Diablo Cut it is! Somebody’s gotta be first. Why not us?”
The T-16 hurtled through the twisting ravine. Luke banked hard to wrap around one curve, only to find himself confronting another sharp turn, and then another after that. Hoping to avoid being sighted by any trigger- happy Sand People, he tried to stay below the shafts of sunlight that clung to the upper edges of the ravine’s high walls.
Luke descended closer to the shadowy canyon floor. As he banked around a rock formation, his weight shifted to his right, accidentally pressing against Biggs’s injured arm. Biggs groaned. Luke kept his eyes forward and sent the T-16 around the next turn.
“Luke. . .“ Biggs gasped. “I must’ve been crazy to get you into this. It can’t be. . . done. . . . It. . ." Biggs fainted.
Luke saw what looked like a dark spot at the base of a cliff. He and Biggs had visited the area before, and he recognized the “spot” as the reason no skyhopper pilot had ever dared fly through Diablo Cut before. It was the entrance to a cavern system that cut under and through Beggar’s Canyon. The ground outside the cavern was littered with the remnants of old Podracers.
Luke angled the T-16 into a steep dive, pulled up fast, and then leveled off to fly straight into the cave. He was immediately engulfed in total darkness.
Warning lights flashed on the T-16’s console. Luke tore his gaze from his triangular windshield and locked his eyes on the sensor scopes. The scopes detected a deadly curtain of stalactites in his path. Luke sent the skyhopper between two stalactites, then veered around a third.
The warning lights continued to flash. Luke kept his gaze fixed on the scopes as he quickly adjusted the thrusters and lifted his port airfoil to avoid a collision with another underground rock formation. A moment later, he was weaving desperately between natural columns of stone.
The scopes displayed what resembled a smooth-walled straightaway. Luke guessed it was an ancient lava tube and accelerated into it, racing even faster through the darkness. Luke thought, This really is crazy.
The tube emptied into a wide chamber, and then Luke’s scopes picked up what looked like an exit, an opening in the ceiling at the chamber’s far end. Luke risked a glance through the windshield to see a jagged crack of pale blue light. Even though Biggs was unconscious, Luke said, “Open sky above us, Biggs! We’re through!”
But as he steered the T-16 up through the opening, he received an unexpected greeting. A Tusken Raider scouting party was waiting outside the cavern, and, hearing his skyhopper’s approach, they raised their pilfered blaster rifles and fired.
Luke angled up and away from the Tuskens, but a moment later he heard a hammering sound from behind as blasterfire struck one of the T-16’s afterburners. He knew that the skyhopper was bound to catch fire from the assault, but he held tight to the controls as he launched forward at top speed, heading southwest.
He rock
eted over the Mospic High Range and Bestine and was angling toward Anchorhead when a warning light flashed. His starboard airfoil was on fire. As smoke trailed from behind the T-16, he feared the craft might explode. He knew that his best chance to prevent an explosion was to plow the skyhopper into the sand, and not near a heavily populated area.
He suddenly realized he was no longer angling for Anchorhead. As if by instinct, he was heading home.
He saw the Lars homestead ahead and dropped the skyhopper at the perimeter. He winced as the starboard airfoil sheared off, and then the T-16 skidded across the sand before it came to a shuddering stop.
Luke threw the hatch open and pulled Biggs out. He was carrying Biggs to the homestead’s entry dome when he saw his uncle running toward him.
“Luke!” Owen shouted. “Have you gone mad, young man?”
“Get a medpac for Biggs, Uncle Owen,” Luke said. “An’ have Aunt Beru call out the local militia fast!”
Star Wars - A New Hope - The Life of Luke Skywalker Page 5
