by Cavan Scott
Milo swallowed.
“Okay,” he said.
“Milo!” Lina said, grabbing his arm. “You can’t just hand them over.”
“I’m inclined to agree,” CR-8R added. “Especially since they’re in my head!”
“You’re more important, Sis,” Milo said, giving Lina a sad smile before turning to Captain Korda. “If he wants the files so badly, he can have them. Crater, transmit now!”
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT was not what Lina expected. Behind them, CR-8R emitted a high-pitched shriek, like nothing she’d ever heard before.
“What’s it doing?” Korda snapped, his face contorted with pain.
Lina pressed her hands over her ears, but she still felt like her head was about to explode. The whole time, Milo was grinning at Captain Korda.
The stormtroopers shifted, aiming their weapons at CR-8R, ready to fire.
“No!” Korda shouted. “You’ll damage the files.” Then he turned to Milo. “Shoot the boy instead. He’s useless to us now.”
The stormtroopers turned their blasters toward Milo, but before any of them could fire, another noise spread over the bridge. Louder. Fiercer. The stormtroopers looked up to see a giant cloud swirling down on them from the sky.
But it wasn’t a cloud. It was a swarm! Thousands of strange insects were flying in formation, bearing down on Merchant’s Bridge. Each was as big as Lina’s fist.
“Wart-hornets,” Milo shouted above the noise. “Watch out for their tongues! Their saliva is poisonous!”
The swarm dropped down on them. They were surrounded in seconds. The noise was deafening, the sound of frantic croaking drowning out their cries. Milo and Lina held on to each other while stormtroopers fired into the air. The blue bolts of energy briefly illuminated the dark mass that swirled all around.
The wart-hornets reacted angrily. They attacked the stormtroopers, trying to find weak spots in their armor. They bit at the stormtroopers’ elbows, under their arms, and behind their knees. Other wart-hornets scurried inside the stormtroopers’ helmets. Tongues dripping with venom shot out whenever they met flesh, and the troopers cried out as the poison took hold. Lina saw one pull off his helmet, revealing his red, swollen face. Big mistake. The flying toads were all over him in seconds.
Milo and Lina huddled close to CR-8R. Morq sheltered between them. A wart-hornet buzzed right past Lina’s head.
“It worked!” Milo shouted in triumph.
“I don’t understand!” Lina cried.
“The wart-hornets send out a warning cry when attacked. Crater has just duplicated it, one hundred times louder than it should be. Every wart-hornet in an eight kilometer radius came to attack the threat.”
“But won’t they attack us, too?” Lina pointed out.
“Not as long as we stick close to Crater and he keeps screaming!”
But then CR-8R fell silent.
Milo hit the droid in his metal chest. “What are you doing? Keep screaming!”
CR-8R shook his head frantically and pointed at his head.
“He’s burnt out his vocabulator,” Lina realized. A wart-hornet zoomed in and flicked its tongue out. It licked her shoulder, leaving a sticky mark on the fabric of her tunic.
“Don’t let them touch your skin,” Milo yelled.
“How?” Lina screamed. Suddenly, she had an idea. “Wait!”
As CR-8R tried swatting away the flying toads with his manipulator arms, Lina searched through her bag.
“What are you doing?” Milo shouted, ducking to avoid a hornet.
“Finding this,” Lina said, pulling a cylindrical tube from her bag.
“Is that—” Milo asked.
“Nazgorigan’s real insect repellent!” Lina cried triumphantly. She sprayed a cloud of vapor over them, smothering first Milo and then Morq. “It smells almost as bad as the fake one but does the trick.”
Sure enough, the wart-hornets backed off, concentrating on the struggling stormtroopers.
“How long will this stuff last?” Milo asked, choking on the spray.
“Don’t know,” Lina admitted, shaking the can. “Hopefully long enough to get away. What’s the plan?”
Milo looked sheepish. “Yeah, the plan. I, um, hadn’t quite worked that part out yet….”
“What?” Lina cried.
“I got the hornets here, didn’t I?” Milo replied.
There was no time to argue. Lina looked around. Covering her face with her hands, she ran through the swarm to the side of the bridge. The wart-hornets parted to let her pass, but a few flew closer than she would have liked. Maybe Nazgorigan’s spray wouldn’t last that long after all.
She reached the edge and looked down at the canal.
“Come on, you three. This way! Quickly!” she called back to Milo, Morq, and CR-8R.
In the middle of the swarm, Captain Korda crouched down on the cobbled street, his arms wrapped around his head. His face burned and he could only see out of one eye. One of those pesky insects had landed on his cheek. He had swatted it away with a gloved hand, but it was too late. His cheek had started to swell and his eyes had watered.
All around him was chaos. Some of his men fired randomly into the swarm while others fell to the ground in pain. Weak fools. Ever since he’d been a boy, Korda had been blessed with a high tolerance to pain. His tolerance had only increased after he joined the Academy. He wouldn’t have survived the Battle of Maraken if it wasn’t for that ability. He still wore his replacement jaw as a trophy of that fight. A battle droid had tried to stop him and it paid the price. These children would be no different.
But where were they?
In front of him, a stormtrooper was clutching his helmet, trying to yank it off his swollen head. Korda forced himself up and grabbed the stormtrooper as an unwilling shield. He pushed the trooper into the cloud of creatures, trying to clear a path. Just then, he saw Milo running for the edge of the bridge with the girl behind him.
Surely he wasn’t going to…
Korda screamed for the boy to stop. But the boy clutched his monkey-lizard to his chest and leapt over the side of the bridge, plunging into the water below. The droid followed, hovering over the railing on its repulsorlift base.
Korda pushed the stormtrooper away. Struggling to see, he snatched his blaster from its holster and aimed at the girl through the cloud of flying creatures. Half blinded as he was by the swarm, his shot slammed into the wall of the bridge as the girl followed the droid over the edge. Chips of stone flew up from the impact, hitting the girl on the leg. She yelped in pain and tumbled forward.
Swatting the bugs out of his way, Korda ran to the edge and glared over. The girl bobbed in the filthy canal water next to the boy. Korda aimed his blaster, but before he could fire, a wart-hornet dive-bombed his outstretched arm. It covered his exposed skin with its venom. He cried out, the blaster tumbling into the water below.
Cursing, he spotted Pexton’s discarded blaster pistol lying on the ground. It was a cheap SoruSuub model, primitive and short-ranged compared with an Imperial weapon. But it would do the job.
Stumbling against the wall, Korda peered over the edge, but the girl was nowhere to be seen. Had she sunk beneath the surface of the canal?
Then there was the sound of an engine. There! The hovering droid was dragging the girl out of the water and into a small wooden boat that was docked on the other side of the canal. Her brother was already behind the wheel.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” Korda spat, firing the Sullustan’s blaster. The bolt hit the side of the boat, scorching the hull, but the girl was already on board. The boy quickly started the engine and the boat sped forward, just as its owner stepped out of a nearby building, shouting after the young thieves.
Then they were gone, thundering along the canal.
Korda slammed his fist down on the stone wall. They were already out of range of the pathetic blaster.
He looked around with his good eye, ignoring the cries of his men. Now that the droid had stopped maki
ng that piercing noise, the swarm seemed to be lifting, not that he cared. It had done its damage.
He couldn’t believe it. He’d been tricked by two children.
Cursing himself, Korda ran the length of the bridge. At the end, a civilian hunched over a speeder bike holding a cloak over her head to protect herself from the swarm. He grabbed her shoulder and tossed her aside. Without giving the woman a second thought, he jumped onto the bike’s seat and started the engine.
The speeder bike shot into the air, scattering the remaining wart-hornets. Korda made a hard left, his knee scraping against the road as he turned. Gunning the throttle, the Imperial captain rocketed away from the bridge.
Those children wouldn’t escape a second time.
“WATCH OUT!” Lina screamed.
Milo jerked the boat to the right, narrowly avoiding a large barge coming at them from the opposite direction. The Klatooinian crew members shouted curses after them, but that was the least of their worries. He glanced at his sister, who was dripping wet and holding on to her leg. “Did he get you?”
“No,” she replied. “Some of the debris from the wall hit my leg, that’s all.”
CR-8R swung around, a can of bacta-spray in one of his manipulator arms. Lina pushed it away. “Stop, Crater, I’m fine. It didn’t even break the…”
Her voice trailed off.
“What is it?” Milo asked, turning to look over his shoulder. Lina didn’t have to answer. A speeder bike was darting down the path that ran along the left-hand side of the canal, chasing them down.
“Korda!” Milo gasped.
The Imperial captain hunched low over the speeder’s handlebars, pushing the bike’s engines to the limit to catch up. Even from a distance, Milo could see there was something wrong with his face. The left side was twice the size it should have been; the skin was swollen and bright red. One of the wart-hornets must have gotten him. It didn’t seem to be slowing him down though. Didn’t this guy ever give up?
Morq squealed in alarm, and Milo looked ahead just in time to avoid a collision with a small vessel.
“That was too close,” he said. “How far is it to the spaceport?”
Lina pulled out her datapad and activated the map. “I don’t know where we are!”
“Neither do I!” Milo cried.
“You found the bridge, didn’t you?” Lina pointed out.
“Coming from the opposite direction! You’re the one who told us to jump into the boat!” Milo argued.
The datapad beeped as it pinpointed their location. “Left!” Lina shouted. “Turn left.”
“When?”
“NOW!”
“A little warning would be good next time,” Milo said, pulling their stolen boat into another sharp turn. They lurched to the left, spraying foul-smelling water over unfortunate bystanders on the canal’s edge.
There was no time to apologize. Korda had crossed a bridge and was still hot on their trail. He steered the bike with one hand and pulled something from his belt with the other.
“He’s got a blaster!” Lina yelled as the officer aimed and fired. The bolt hit the back of their boat, sending wooden splinters flying everywhere.
Milo weaved around the other boats on the canal—or at least, that was his plan. With a sickening crunch, he clipped the side of a barge, nearly throwing CR-8R overboard.
“Are you trying to sink us?” Lina shouted. Morq jumped up and grabbed her head, his arms around her eyes.
Another blaster bolt struck the boat, dangerously close to the outboard engine propelling them through the water.
“No, but Korda is,” Milo said. “Where do we go now?”
“I can’t see!” Lina complained, trying to pry the terrified monkey-lizard off her face.
Milo looked at them. “Morq, get off her. If you need to hug anyone, go hug Crater.”
Still unable to speak, the droid couldn’t object as Morq sprung from Lina’s head to his!
“That’s better,” Lina said, checking the map. “Take a right, then make an immediate left. Korda will be stuck on the other side of the canal.”
“So?” Milo said.
“His speeder won’t make it over the water.” Lina smiled. “He’ll have to go the long way around.”
“Okay,” Milo replied. “But just remember what you said about me crashing things!”
The boat skidded around a right-hand corner as Korda’s blaster fire hit the water. Then Milo turned the ship left. Both children cried out as the boat nearly capsized before righting itself.
“Is he still there?” Milo asked, keeping his eyes straight ahead.
Lina looked around. There was no sign of Korda’s speeder bike.
“He’s gone, I think,” Lina answered.
“Then let’s get back to the Bird before he finds us again,” Milo suggested.
With Lina reading the directions, Milo did his best to steer the boat. Twice he almost crashed into the canal walls, and he nearly rammed into a barge full of grain. But every near collision took them closer to the spaceport, away from Korda!
Milo grinned behind the wheel. They were going to do this. They were going to get away!
Then he heard a piercing cry that sounded like a screaming animal.
“Oh, no,” Lina groaned.
“What?” Milo said, turning to look over his shoulder.
One of the TIE fighters swooped low in the air above them. It matched their speed, dropping down above the canal. It was so close that they could see the dark armor of the pilot through the viewport.
“Stop the vehicle and surrender!” the pilot commanded over the fighter’s loudspeakers.
“What do we do?” Milo asked.
“We ignore him and keep going,” Lina replied.
“Ignore the big ship with the laser cannons?” Milo asked skeptically.
“It’s not that big,” Lina lied.
“Yeah, when you’re in a Star Destroyer, not a speedboat!”
He pulled the boat around another corner, with the TIE fighter following close behind.
“I repeat,” the pilot boomed. “Stop or I will shoot!”
Milo shot Lina a worried glance. “He won’t,” Lina insisted. “You heard Korda on the bridge. They can’t risk hitting Crater.”
Green energy bolts slammed into the canal on either side of the boat. Large clouds of steam rose into the air as the blaster cannons vaporized the water.
“Want to tell him that?” Milo screamed.
Lina pointed up ahead. “Go down there.”
Milo’s eyes widened when he saw where Lina meant. It was a loading channel for the tall warehouses on either side. And it was a narrow stretch of water, not much wider than the boat!
“I’ll never make it,” Milo said. “It’s coming up too fast!”
“Turn now!” Lina shouted.
“No!” Milo yelled.
The TIE fighter fired again, churning the water. It was trying to scare them into stopping. Instead, Lina leaned forward. She grabbed the steering wheel and yanked it to the right. The boat jack-knifed across the canal and crashed into the loading channel, bouncing off the narrow walls.
Instinctively, the TIE pilot turned to follow them, and he realized his mistake too late. Unable to make it through the gap, the starfighter ran into the warehouse, tearing the solar panels from its sides and exploding into a ball of fire. Burning debris rained down, hissing as it hit the cold water.
Milo grabbed the wheel back from his sister, but the boat stalled, drifting to a halt. “What happened?”
Lina crawled over to the engine. A neat circular hole was burned through the casing. “It’s dead. One of Korda’s shots must have hit it. The fuel’s been leaking out. We’re lucky it didn’t explode.”
“Then what are we going to do? Swim?” Milo asked sarcastically.
Lina turned to CR-8R. “Crater, you’ll have to use your repulsors.”
The droid shook his head in response.
“Look,” she said, shoving t
he datapad into his face. “We’re only a couple of blocks from the spaceport. Point your repulsors over the back of the boat and push us. Come on, Korda could be here any moment!”
The droid shook his head again.
Just then, a gloved hand grabbed the back of the boat!
Lina cried out as the downed TIE fighter pilot tried to pull himself from the water. The black figure reached out for Lina, her terrified face reflecting in his mask’s goggles.
“Crater, stop arguing and do it!” Lina shouted.
As the TIE pilot struggled to haul himself up, the droid threw his base over the stern. Gripping the edge of the boat with his manipulator arms, CR-8R fired his repulsors straight in the TIE fighter pilot’s face.
The boat shot forward, faster than before. The pilot lost his grip, flying backward into the water.
Milo turned out of the channel and onto a clear stretch of canal.
“Keep going forward,” Lina instructed as she consulted the map. “And then take a right next to that landspeeder dealer.”
Milo did what he was told as CR-8R’s repulsorlift unit whined in protest. Ahead of them, the buildings on either side of the canal thinned out to reveal a cluster of large ships.
“It’s the spaceport!” Lina cheered.
Milo turned to look at her.
“Yeah, and Korda, too.”
The captain was standing on a low bridge ahead of them, his blaster aimed in their direction and ready to fire!
“STOP. RIGHT. THERE!” Korda bellowed.
“I don’t think so,” Milo hissed.
“What are you going to do?” Lina asked.
“This,” Milo said as he twisted the steering wheel. “Give us one last boost, Crater!”
The boat rocketed forward, hitting a row of stone steps that led up from the water. They shot into the air, soaring over the bridge and right above Korda. The captain fired his blaster upward. The bolts thudded into the bottom of the boat, bursting through the deck and narrowly missing Lina and Milo—but they had jumped out. Never to float again, the boat crashed into the canal wall, shattering on the stones. It skidded across the street, demolishing a market stall.
